23-year-old pacer Arshdeep Singh came in for a lot of abuse as he dropped a crucial catch of Asif Ali during the Asia Cup 2022 Super 4s encounter between India and Pakistan in Dubai on September 6.
While the abuse was vile and concentrated on Arshdeep, attacks were also made on his religion and ethnicity; Arshdeep didn’t face much abuse in real life. But this all changed as a fan decided to taunt the pacer as he was boarding the team bus after the match.
India had lost to Pakistan by 5 wickets in the close encounter and in their last match lost to Sri Lanka as well, by 6 wickets and then as a result of Pakistan beating Afghanistan in the recent-most encounter, the Men in Blue and Afghan team were eliminated from the Asia Cup 2022.
Meanwhile, the incident of Arshdeep being abused happened when the Indian team left the Dubai ground. Usually, fans gather in the area of exit to cheer for the team players and there were 20 people near the Indian team bus as well.
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Arshdeep was among the last few to board the bus. Like his teammates, he too wore a somber look on his face. Suddenly, one man yelled, "Oye Sardar." Arshdeep paused for a bit and then started walking off before the man yelled again in Punjabi.
In the video, the words uttered by the man can be translated into “are you hiding your face because of the dropped catch".
A furious Arshdeep, who had one foot inside the bus, stopped in his tracks. His anger was apparent and the glare remained for 15-20 seconds even when he boarded the bus but stood near the door.
Another Indian journalist named Vimal Kumar, who was recording the Indian team members boarding the team bus, then rebuked the man for abusing Arshdeep and asked him why he said something like that knowing that he was an Indian team player.
This correspondent had to explain to the security personnel who didn’t understand Punjabi that whatever was said bordered on racial abuse. A furious Rohit Sharma could be seen jumping out of his seat, suggesting that the man shouldn't be spared.
Here is the video:
After the matter had been explained to them, security personnel took the man aside and noted down his name. Whether it led to any further action is unknown.
