'England cricket team willing to boycott social media' - Stuart Broad on online abuse faced by teammates

It does not matter if the world has entered into the third decade of the 21st century, the abuse based on caste, creed, color, sex, religion, and the race continues rampantly even today. The haunts of these are real, and if those who hold a stature as high in the society as politicians, cricketers, and footballers can’t evade it, the situation of common people in the society is anybody’s guess.

England pacer Stuart Broad believes that the country’s cricket team would be prepared to boycott social media if the players wanted to take a stand against online abuse. With the advent of social media, such incidences have been on an all-time high as many people make targets with ease.

Notably, Broad’s teammates Jofra Archer and Moeen Ali have reported racially motivated attacks on Instagram on at least two occasions last year. Ali was even named in a highly controversial tweet by author Taslima Nasreen recently, which, as per the author, was a “misunderstanding”.

I think it is definitely worth a conversation: Stuart Broad

“It’s a really strong message. You don’t want a small minority to ruin the opportunities you get through social media but do you need something drastic to stop it or should there be more responsibility with app creators and more liability? I think it is definitely worth a conversation”

“There are great positives to social media but if we have to lose those positives for a period of time to make a stand then I’d be well up for that. It beggars belief that someone could write some messages to my teammates that they have to Jofra. If you said some stuff people say on social media on the street, it wouldn’t end well, would it?” Broad told to PA Media.

“If there was action it would come from the leaders in our dressing room and if the team felt like a change needed to happen we’ve got some really great people above us in the hierarchy, like Ashley Giles and Tom Harrison, that would be very open to what the team’s beliefs were,” he added.