In a shocking development, the England U-19 team has been subjected to distasteful and vulgar comments on a picture posted of their departure ahead of the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, on Instagram and Twitter.
The picture was shared by the England and Wales Cricket Board on Wednesday and what was totally unexpected were the vile and unnecessary comments that the young girls were subjected to. The comments ranged from asking the girls to stop playing cricket, and join beauty contests to name-calling and asking for names, their social media handles and tagging the players among the other ridiculous things witnessed. What was preposterous was when a certain profile screenshotted the image, circle a particular player and then inquire about personal information. It is pertinent to note that all the players are 19 and below and it was incredibly sad to see the comments section of both the social media platforms where the image was posted.
Her id ? pic.twitter.com/YoFSHf720f
— RahuL (@punjabi_walter) January 4, 2023
brown folk providing ample reasons for keepin them out of the country in these comments
— Sheffield™ Built (@theostracised) January 4, 2023
The one with blonde hairs with scarf
— playalong (@dullstar8) January 4, 2023
Group of Beauty
— Ricky Dabral (@ricky_dabral) January 4, 2023
Ye sab kitni awesome hai 😅😍
— AKHIL Ak47 (@Sammy41648183) January 4, 2023
In the innocuous image, we can see all the players spotted smiling and huddled together as a team taken moments before departing to South Africa for the maiden U19 Women’s World Cup. Disturbed by the turn of events, a lot of concerned parents, journalists, and stakeholders speak up about how the unfortunate reality now has even children getting sexualized and how they had to stop reading the comments section because of its disturbing and disparaging nature.
The England team boasts of a strong squad that has Ellie Anderson, Hannah Baker, Josie Groves, Liberty Heap, Niamh Holland, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Emma Marlow, Charis Pavely, Davina Perrin, Lizzie Scott, Grace Scrivens Sophia Smale, Seren Smale, Alexa Stonehouse, Maddie Ward. They will look to put up a good show in the World Cup and are grouped with Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Rwanda in Group B. The ICC U-19 Women’s World Cup features over 16 teams participating and it spans from 14th January to 29th January in South Africa.
I am a first year postgraduate student pursuing a MA in Media and Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. I am a podcaster, blogger and an avid cricket fan. When not glued to cricket matches, you can find me submerged in books and thinking about cricket all the time.
