Watch: ‘Fan’ abuses Arshdeep Singh while boarding team bus as security officers go missing | Cricket News – Times of India

DUBAI: Pacer Arshdeep Singh, only 23 years of age, may have been subjected to mean social-media trolling after he dropped a sitter from Asif Ali’s bat in a crucial India-Pakistan match on Sunday, but he had been insulated from real-life abuse here in Dubai. Until Tuesday night.
As a group of journalists, we generally leave the Dubai International Cricket Stadium more or less at the same time, when Team India‘s bus leaves. The players come out of the gate adjacent to the media box. There are usually 75-100 people cheering the players as they board the bus. On Tuesday night, after India’s defeat to Sri Lanka, there were around 20.

Arshdeep was among the last few to board the bus. Like his teammates, he too wore a sombre 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. The mention of ‘Sardar’ and ‘dropped catch’ was particularly jarring. The literal translation of what the man said was on the lines of “are you hiding your face because of the dropped catch”. It may not read as offensive but the tone of his rant screamed discrimination.
A furious Arshdeep, who had one foot inside the bus, stopped in his tracks. His anger was apparent and the glare looked like it would have cut through the windshield of the bus. For the 10-15 seconds that he stood on the door of the bus, you knew Arshdeep was seething inside.

Another Indian journalist, who takes shots of the team’s departure, stopped his recording and rebuked the person concerned. The security personnel present there couldn’t understand the language and so didn’t understand what went wrong. This correspondent had to explain to them 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.
What felt odd was that no one from Team India’s mega support staff was there to address the issue. The team’s security liaison officer (SLO) was not in the vicinity, nor were the administrative managers present. They had, in fact, boarded the bus before all the players did. BCCI sources say it’s the job of the SLO to ensure all players board the bus first. Since they usually understand the local language, they should be able to control such situations. 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.
Incidents like these are often allowed to pass. Like Mohammed Siraj in Australia last year, Arshdeep red-flagged the incident with his stare but he chose not to go ahead with any further action.