- By Sunny Daud
- Tue, 26 May 2026 09:03 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
When Jessica Davies, the wife of Australian cricketer Travis Head, opened up about the hateful messages her family received after his heated moment with Virat Kohli, it felt disturbing on many levels. Around the same time, Shrestha Iyer was brutally trolled just for appearing in a casual and fun video with the Punjab Kings social media team. These incidents are not just random examples of fans crossing limits anymore. They show how ugly cricket’s online culture has become. Apart from that, Virat Kohli's wife and Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma also abused and trolled online after her husband's no handshake gesture with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) counterpart Travis Head.
How trolls, negative trends started harming players
A few years ago, fan pages and online trends were mostly harmless. People argued about matches, celebrated their favourite players, and simply enjoyed the sport. But slowly, social media stopped being just about cricket. It became a business.
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The more followers a player had, the more valuable he became for brands and sponsors. One viral trend could lead to endorsement deals worth crores. That is when marketing agencies and management companies entered the picture in a big way. Their focus became simple — increase engagement at any cost.
Are these hate campaigns paid?
According to a PTI report, industry insiders revealed that some agencies even charge anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakh to run organised hate campaigns against players online. These campaigns are often designed to trend hashtags for hours or even days using customised content, statistics, and coordinated trolling.
Fan wars slowly started getting encouraged because controversy brought attention. Troll pages began growing faster than genuine cricket discussions. Over time, people realised that hate spreads much faster than praise. Supporting one player slowly turned into constantly attacking another.
Soon, things became impossible to control.
Fake statistics, edited videos, abusive hashtags, and organised trolling became common. Entire online groups started behaving like digital gangs, targeting players nonstop. And because most people hide behind anonymous accounts, they say things online they would never dare to say in real life.
Hate campaigns started attacking families
The saddest part is that families are now suffering too. Wives, sisters, and even children are getting abused for things they have absolutely nothing to do with. No sport should ever reach a stage where families feel unsafe because of a game.
What Jessica Head and Shrestha Iyer faced is actually the result of a system that kept rewarding toxicity for years. Everyone enjoyed the likes, trends, and viral numbers when they helped players grow online. But now the same culture has turned poisonous and deeply personal.