Twitter is one of the world’s leading social networking platforms. It is a platform that enables people to share their thoughts and opinions on any topic.
The platform has become popular because anyone – from street peddlers to presidents – can share their views freely and without censorship in the form of tweets.
When a tweet is written, it is shared with all the followers of the person who tweeted it. Each of these followers then has the opportunity to retweet it, and in turn it will be shared with their followers, and so on.
For this reason, Twitter has become a powerful medium among not only average people, but also the rich, the famous, and the powerful, as a tool used to spread ideas and opinions to the wider public.
Twitter is hugely popular right here in India as well. According to recent statistics, Twitter boasts a total user base of more than 24 million users in India.
And what is the topic that Indians love talking about more than anything? Cricket, of course!
And nothing gets us Indians riled up more than a bit of cricket controversy. So in this article, we will take a look at some of the most controversial cricket tweets that got the most attention on Twitter.
1. Ambati Rayudu trolling Team India
Ambati Rayudu is an Indian cricketer from Andhra Pradesh who has represented Team India at numerous international tournaments.
Rayudu also played in multiple seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL) representing both the Mumbai and Chennai franchises.
Ambati Rayudu made headlines with a tweet in 2019 when India’s World Cup team selections were announced. Rayudu was not selected for the World Cup Tour due to his poor performance at the time.
According to Ambati Rayudu who was interviewed about being jettisoned from Team India, the Indian cricket team captain had promised him a spot in India’s World Cup squad.
However, Rayudu was replaced by Vijay Shankar at the last minute because the selection panel believed that the team needed a “3-dimensional player” like Vijay Shankar.
Rayudu was unhappy with the decision and tried to troll the selection panel with a sarcastic tweet which read “Just ordered a new set of 3D glasses to watch the World Cup” in reference to the selection panel calling Vijay Shankar a three-dimensional player.
The tweet instantly became a hit and received thousands of retweets and comments from Indian cricket fans who generally found the tweet from Rayudu hilarious.
2. Harbhajan Singh’s Twitter war with Mohammad Amir
Former Team India cricket star Harbhajan Singh has been at the center of controversy both on and off the field multiple times, and in late 2021 he was at it again in a Twitter fight with former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Amir.
After Pakistan beat India by ten wickets in the T20 World Cup, Amir took to Twitter and wrote (in Hindi) “Did Harbhajan break his TV?” in reference to Indian cricket fans breaking their television sets when losing past editions of the cricket world cup tournament.
Harbhajan apparently couldn’t resist the temptation and responded to Amir with a video of himself hitting a last over six against Pakistan and tweeting “Now you’re also talking? Did this six land on your television?”
Although it started off civil enough, the conversation went rapidly downhill from there. After a few tweets back and forth, Amir and Harbhajan began to accuse each other of match fixing, and Harbhajan really turned up the heat when he called Amir a disgrace and a black spot on cricket.
This entire dialogue was, in true social media fashion, on full public display. Many of the controversial tweets, especially the ones made by Harbhajan Singh were retweeted tens of thousands of times.
The Twitter spat also got nationwide media attention with news publications from Times of India to Hindustan Times covering the controversy in detail.
3. Lalit Modi’s betting company tweet
Lalit Modi is an Indian businessman and co-founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Modi served as the chairman of the IPL from 2008 to 2010, which were some of the defining years in the development of the tournament. He took the IPL from the idea stage, and turned it into a multi-million dollar concept.
Lalit Modi has always been an active tweeter when it comes to cricket and especially the IPL.
In 2021 it was announced that the IPL would open up for two new team franchises. The owners of each team would be found through an anonymous bidding process, where the two highest bidders would win a franchise.
After the bidding process was concluded, it was revealed that a company known as CVC Capital (who is also the majority shareholder of betting company Tipico) would win one of the franchises.
This event caused Modi to rush to Twitter where he wrote the following Tweet:
“I guess betting companies can buy a @ipl team. must be a new rule. apparently one qualified bidder also owns a big betting company. what next? does @BCCI not do there homework. what can Anti corruption do in such a case?”
It’s obvious that Modi is not happy about online cricket betting sites and betting operators owning a stake in the IPL.
However, it’s not obvious that there would be any legal or civil restrictions preventing a company like CVC Capital to own a betting company and still make investments into the IPL.
According to a BCCI official: “None of the bidders in the room had any issues with the bidding process. It was done in the most transparent manner. The winning bids only showed the increasing global appeal of the IPL.”