Opening Doorz

By Martin D’Souza | Opening Doorz Editorial | November 01, 2019

Anushka Sharma is not someone to be messed with. The lady likes to speak her mind. At the 2015 World Cup, she was trolled after India lost to Australia in the semi-final. Poor Farokh Engineer, I’m sure he did not mean ill about the actor but he was just miffed at the selectors and inadvertently, the focus went onto the Indian Cricket Captain’s wife to an incident which allegedly happened during the just-concluded Cricket World Cup.

Two World Cups in a row—Anushka is not someone to take things lying down, time and again. This time she decided to speak her mind.

It’s another matter that Engineer calls the current Selectors a “Mickey-Mouse Selection Committee”. Mohinder Amarnath knew that long before Engineer could: He had called them [the selectors] “A bunch of jokers” when he learned from sports journos whilst training at the Wankhede Stadium in 1989, that he was dropped from the Indian team against John Wright’s visiting Kiwis.

In 2015, as India was replying to Australia’s total and Virat Kohli got out top-edging a rising delivery after scoring one run, the camera focused on Anuskha’s face: She was as upset as any Indian fan.

But then, more wickets tumbled, and India dug themselves deep into a pit from which they could not retrieve themselves. And by the time the last wicket fell, “the world was abuzz and aghast by Anushka’s presence at Sydney Cricket Ground.”

She became the laughing stock, the soft-punching bag. Despite the fact that it was the Indian cricket team that was not up to mark!

Anushka put up a brave front soaking in the social media abuse. She stayed quiet even after the unfair criticism and ‘crass comments’. It was a nightmare she would not want to wish on anyone.

What was even sadder was to see the fear on her face as she emerged from the airport on her return from Australia along with Virat Kohli. That was very disturbing, nay unnerving. No human being deserves to be treated in a manner like this. After all, cricket is just a game. You win some, you lose some.

This time, however, Anushka was setting the record straight. There was no keeping quiet. It was an Ericsson-like slap on Engineer’s face: “If you want to have a comment on the selection committee and their qualifications, please don’t drag my name into it to substantiate your claim or sensationalize your opinion,” is what she wrote back to the former Test stumper on Social Media!

The actress, just like the model in the famous coffee Ad, has delivered a googly!

Do we hear the sound of shattering glass?

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