After 51 for 7, Pakistan fought back in this unofficial semi-final: Flashback

February 18, 2021 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Sharjah was known for producing some interesting and unpredictable cricket matches in the 1980s and 1990s. The Pakistan v/s Zimbabwe match in the league stage of the 1997 Singer-Akai Cup turned out to be one such saga with unexpected twists.

It was the last league match of the series and was more like a semi-final. Sri Lanka had reached the final and it was left to this match to decide whether Pakistan would join them or Zimbabwe.

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat. They had a very strong team and this made them the favorites. But the Zimbabwean team of the 1990s had the ability to scare anyone on their day.

This is exactly what the African nation did with the ball. Pakistan kept losing wickets right from the start. We soon realized that this isn’t just another bad start from which teams generally recover.

In less than 20 overs, Pakistan was reduced to 51 for 7! The trio of Eddo Brandes, Heath Streak and Everton Matambanadzo was all over Pakistan and it looked as if they would be bundled out before reaching 100, considering all their frontline batsmen were out.

I clearly remember being shocked and amused as a school boy watching the match on TV.

Pakistan keeper Moin Khan — Moin Khan [Photo source: Indian Express]

Although the big names had collapsed, Pakistan still had Moin Khan out there. The gutsy wicketkeeper-batsmen had bailed out his team from trouble on numerous occasions in the past. He did it again for his team, despite the disadvantage of having only the tail for company.

Their star off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq put his hand up and gave a solid support to Khan. The scorecard might indicate that he played a test innings by scoring 20 off 81 balls but in the context of the match, the innings was priceless.

Khan succeeded in rescuing his team with a brilliant 61 off 97 balls. The fact that he could hit just one four and one six was proof of how hard he had to work for his runs. The pair of Khan and Saqlain added 77 runs for the eight wicket and Pakistan had something to bowl to by finishing at 151 for 9.

But despite the fightback, the score was very low and there were no demons in the wicket. Zimbabweans still had the upper hand.

However, there were more unexpected events in store. Pakistan’s strong bowling attack lead by Waqar Younis kept striking regularly at the start. His team mate and leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed rose to the occasion and picked up 4 wickets. Apart from playing a gutsy innings, Saqlain picked up a couple of wickets too.

In the end, Zimbabwe was all out for a paltry 119 in 40.1 overs.

At the halfway stage, it looked like Zimbabwe would create another upset after their win against Sri Lanka earlier in the series. But that wasn’t to be courtesy one of the biggest fightbacks in ODI history.

In the end, the match became like a replay of the earlier league game between both the teams. Pakistan were all out for 187 and Zimbabwe were bundled out for 95 after being 39 for no loss at one stage.

This match also brought back memories of India being 17 for 5 against the same team in the 1983 World Cup match and then going onto win due to skipper Kapil Dev’s incredible innings of 175 not out.

Unfortunately, there is no video available of this encounter on YouTube.

SRK & Ashok SARAF’s pair in Yes Boss deserves more appreciation

February 13, 2021 by Keyur Seta 8 Comments

There have been some comic, non-romantic male pairs in Hindi cinema since the 1990s. Govinda-Kader Khan, Kader Khan-Shakti Kapoor, Akshay Kumar-Paresh Rawal, etc, are the ones that come to our mind instantly. But a pair that I consider as impressive as these ones is that of Shah Rukh Khan and Ashok Saraf in Aziz Mirza’s Yes Boss (1997).

It’s an unusual pair for sure. Both the actors have different personalities, mannerisms, acting skills and temperaments. Plus, one was an emerging Bollywood star while the other had already acquired the status of a legend in Marathi cinema.

Sometimes, the more unusual the pair, the more are its chances of standing out, especially while doing comedy, and that is exactly what happened with SRK and Saraf in this movie.

Yes Boss saw Khan play Rahul, an ambitious youngster eager to be rich and own a dream office. To achieve his mission, he doesn’t mind bootlicking his boss Siddharth (Aditya Pancholi), which also involves hiding his extra-marital affairs. Siddharth falls for the beautiful Seema (Juhi Chawla), who starts modelling for his firm. He takes Rahul’s help to woo her as usual. However, Rahul also falls for her.

SRK-Ashok Saraf in Yes Boss — Ashok Saraf and Shah Rukh Khan

Saraf played Rahul’s colleague and close friend Johnny. The two share a close bond in the film and are seen hanging out and confiding in each other regularly.

Khan and Saraf were cast together in Rakesh Roshan’s Karan Arjun (1995) but their characters weren’t related to each other. They hardly interacted.

Yes Boss was the first time that the two actors played a pair of characters involved with each other. However, it didn’t look like that. Their chemistry and tuning appeared so natural that it seemed as if they have been playing each other’s co-stars since a long time.

As soon as they appear together on-screen, you are either laughing or smiling, all thanks to their chemistry, acting skills and antics. The scene where Rahul tries to shoo off Johnny so that he can share a private chat with Seema is one such amusing scene.

But what takes the cake is the moment when Khan and Saraf are seen bathing together in the same tub while singing ‘Muqabla Muqabla, O Laila.’ This is followed by their embarrassing moment in the corridor of the hotel because they are only wearing a towel as a cloth.

See the tub scene in this video

Now, who would have thought of such a tub scene with Khan and Saraf? (See in the video above). In today’s times, this would instantly make us question if they are homosexuals. But when I saw the film for the first time in my childhood, obviously I didn’t even think of such a thing. I am sure same is the case with others as well then.

The outcome of SRK and Saraf’s pair appears appealing even today. That’s why these days the more I think of the film, the more I wonder why nothing is spoken or written about this hilarious pairing in the numerous movie related articles and discussions on the internet and social media.

It’s still not too late.

Needless to say, I feel the SRK-Saraf pair should have been explored more in the last 20 years or so.

Maybe, it’s still not too late for this as well…

Also read:

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JusticeForSSR now has NO place on news channels. Who gained, who lost?

My 1st encounter with INTERNET through a cola drink 20 years ago

February 2, 2021 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Internet has become one of the basic needs today, especially for city-dwellers; whether professionals or students. It has penetrated so much into our lives that it often makes us wonder how life would be without its presence.

This makes me recall the time when I was introduced to the internet for the first time ever or when I took baby steps into this medium, which was called revolutionary back then. It makes me feel strange to even imagine the time when I was able to live without the internet!

During the start of the new millennium (in the year 2000) I was an addict of colas. It is this addiction that played a major role in me getting introduced to this medium.

Coca-Cola had come up with a scheme then of offering free internet surfing for 30 minutes with every glass of the soft drink. They provided a card that could be exchanged at any of the cyber cafes listed by them for half an hour of net surfing.

When the person at the counter gave me and my friends the card when we bought Coca-Cola for the first time after the scheme was launched, we were surprised. When he explained to us about the internet, I was confused. What is internet? What is a cyber café? I could hardly understand any of it but still decided to go ahead since it was for free and involved sitting in front of the computer.

The cyber café closest to my house was located in a crammed place near Dadar railway station. It appeared like a shady office space but the person running it was kind enough to explain to us what exactly internet is and what all can we do with it. But it took us some time to even get used to handling the ‘mouse,’ since we hadn’t learnt Windows in school.

We soon came to know about something called an e-mail address and that it’s a different way of sending a letter, since the word ‘digital’ hadn’t become common then. It didn’t take me long to keep ‘iamthebest’ as my first e-mail ID; based on one of my favourite songs from Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000). [Few months later, my next e-mail ID included the words ‘raj_aryan’ when Mohabbatein (2000) became my next favourite film.]

By the way, kids from today’s era won’t know that we used to connect to the net through a device called modem. And it used to make strange sounds before connecting.

The sounds emanating from the modem in olden days before connecting to the net

Funnily, we opened an e-mail ID but we had nobody to whom we can send e-mails. So, we started sending mails to each other.

In one of my next visits to the café, someone else was sitting on the computer I always used. The owner asked me to take the next PC. But I opposed saying I have always accessed my mails from this PC, so how can I check them from another machine? That’s how I came to know that e-mails can be accessed from any computer in the world and that’s why it’s called the World Wide Web (www).

In today’s times, it’s obvious that if we send an e-mail to someone, it gets saved in the address book automatically. But what wasn’t the case then. We actually wrote down e-mail IDs of people in a diary! We didn’t know we can copy-paste the e-mail ID of a person from his or her previous mail.

It felt like a sense of achievement to surf news from the computer. The two most common websites I used to visit were Cricinfo.com and IndiaFM.com [which later became BollywoodHungama.com].

I felt more triumphant when I could open and load pictures of film stars or cricketers. The speed to open one picture back then was the same to download a 20 or 30 MB videos today.

The now defunct Yahoo chat rooms through Yahoo messenger

Internet soon became our latest sensation and we started visiting cyber cafes on every weekend; this time by paying. We started visiting a different and more sophisticated café at Gokhale Road (North), Dadar where you could also order food.

Slowly, we were introduced to the idea of chat rooms [In MSN, followed by Yahoo]. And this made us familiar with the concept of making friends online, even in far distant countries. It took us just few weeks to become pros at using the internet.

There was a sense of pride to have become ‘experts’ in this new medium much before our other friends in the building, relatives and a large majority of the Indian population.

But my pride was demolished either in the same year or the next when I noticed that one famous paan wala at Breach Candy with the name of the shop as ‘Muchhad Panwala’ was having his own official website since 1998!

And here we were feeling on top of the world by just having an e-mail ID!

P.S – Just last month, the paan wala was arrested in a drug-related case, but that’s a different story.

Also read:

Rape threats don’t go against Facebook’s ‘community standards’

Walking out of abusive marriage was the best decision: Social activist Urmila Chanam

India’s emphatic win achieved another LARGER good

January 19, 2021 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

It is said that cricket is like life. And life can be strange. Very strange, at times. And funny too. What better example than the stories of the two 19s? On 19 December 2020, exactly a month ago, Indian fans felt their lowest when their team was bundled out for just 36 in the first test at Adelaide against Australia.

This was India’s lowest score ever in the history of the game. One would, naturally, write a team off from here on and expect them to lose 4-0. I too felt in case India even draws one of the remaining three matches, it will be like an achievement.

But exactly a month later today, on 19 January 2021, we are celebrating India’s 2-1 series victory after the emphatic win in the fourth test at the Gabba, Brisbane.

Like life, cricket is indeed funny.

It would have been a remarkable victory for India even if they had played their full-strength side in the next three matches. But instead in the last two matches they had to go with an India A or a second string team and still triumphed against the mighty Aussies on their home turf and that too after the disastrous 36 all out.

For example, Mohammed Siraj made his debut in the 2nd test of the series and he was the leading pacer in the fourth one!

Winning with such an inexperienced side makes this one of India’s best test series victories ever if not the best. It has been said that this is an even greater achievement than the 2001 home series against Australia; famous for VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid’s heroics.

Team India taking a flag march at the Gabba — Photo source: Sachin Tendulkar’s Facebook page

But apart from clinching an almost impossible victory, this win has achieved another greater good for the game of cricket.

Many of us would have heard countless number of people say that test matches are boring. It’s a five-day game with no over restrictions and players play slow. Hence, people, especially the younger generation, prefer limited overs cricket, especially T20s; more so after the arrival of the IPL (Indian Premier League).

Limited overs cricket is considered more interesting since the match can swing any ways. There are nail-biting moments with the many close finishes. Throughout the match something or the other keeps happening in the middle to keep the entertainment factor alive.

But this test series has proven that the aforementioned factors can also occur in test cricket. This can be seen from the number of times our heartbeats were increased during the course of the series. In limited overs cricket, fours and sixes are cheered. But the third and fourth test showed that even dot balls can produce excitement.

You would lose counts of the number of dot balls that were cheered in the third test when Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari were batting to save the match for India.

People, who generally avoid test cricket, must have also understood that it takes a lot more skill for both batsmen and bowlers to excel in this format.

It is called ‘test cricket’ for a reason. It is a test of your skills.

This series has endorsed the five-day version of the game not just in India and Australia but also world over like never before. Let’s hope enough people noticed this around the world.

Cricket administrators have been thinking since the last few years about reducing test matches to four-day games. I guess such ideas will be put on the backburner now.

Also read:

He played 1 test but has ZERO tests to his credit

After just 1 run in first 6 innings, Marvan Atapattu made a historic comeback

India’s injury woes bring back horrific memories of 1976 West Indies tour

January 13, 2021 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Team India is on a high right now after they managed to pull off a heroic draw in the third test match against Australia in Sydney earlier this week. The ‘no result’ is considered as victory by cricket experts and Indian cricket fans around the world.

Under normal circumstances, this should encourage India to go into the fourth test, which starts on 15 January, with mammoth confidence. However, these are not normal circumstances that the team is facing currently.

More than a handful of Indian players are facing serious injuries. These include – Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Jaspreet Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. These six players are ruled out of the match and there are other players too who are not fit.

It is not often that you see so many players from a squad ruled out of a match because of injuries. This situation brings back some horrific memories of India’s tour to the West Indies in 1976, although under different circumstances.

I had heard Syed Kirmani, who played that match, recall the incident in an old TV quiz show about cricket on the now defunct channel Home TV in the late 1990s.

India vs West Indies — Photo source: Crictracker.com

It was the last test of the four match series. With both the teams winning one match each, it looked like there was an exciting contest in store. More so because in the last match, India chased down the record-breaking total of 406 by losing just 4 wickets. But the last match was anything but exciting for the Indian team.

India batted first and declared their innings at 306 for 6. Practically they were 9 down with Brijesh Patel, Anshuman Gaekwad and Gundappa Vishwanath injured. It is said that India’s captain Bishen Singh Bedi declared despite having 1 wicket in hand because he didn’t want him and another tailender Bhagwat Chandrasekhar to get injured facing the Windies quickies.

In reply, West Indies were all out at 391 with a good lead.

But there was a larger nightmare in store for India. In the second innings, the team had to declare their innings at 97 for 5!

India was forced to declare simply because five of their 11 players were injured and not fit to play! Along with the three players in the first innings, Bedi and Chandrasekhar also got injured in the course of the match and couldn’t bat.

As per the Indian players , these many injuries weren’t a mere misfortune but were deliberate tactics of the West Indies’ bowlers to injure the batsmen with nasty bouncers and, even, beamers. Sunil Gavaskar has gone on record to slam the opposition bowlers and even the crowd for cheering whenever an Indian player got hurt and asking for more!

On top of that, there were no helmets in that era!

Declaration at such a low total meant that India only had a 12-run lead in the second innings. Hence, the WI were left with a target of only 13 runs, which they achieved without losing a wicket.

But that’s not all as far as the sorry condition of Indian players is concerned. India’s substitute player Surinder Amarnath was rushed to the hospital during the match for an appendix operation.

Out of the 17-men squad, six were not fit to play. This meant that everyone from the squad was required to field during some stage of the game.

India equals 40-year-old record after Sydney draw

January 11, 2021 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Less than a month ago, the Indian cricket team was down in the dumps like never before after they shockingly got all out on 36 in the first test against Australia in the Border-Gawaskar Trophy. It was their lowest total ever in the history!

On that fateful day on 19 December 2020, who would have thought that this same team would win the second test match and draw the third one heroically? The turnaround that this Indian side has gone through in the last two matches has been legendary.

They have shown this is unlike any Indian team of the past and a force to reckon with even without their best batsman and captain Virat Kohli and with injured players like Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.

The third test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which ended today, is a draw on paper but it’s as good as winning the match for the tourists. It can be a nightmare to bat on the fifth day pitch while chasing a mammoth total of over 400 runs against a formidable bowling attack.

When India were three down after they lost Ajinkya Rahane earlier in the day, it seemed they would succumb soon. But Rishabh Pant had other plans. He tried doing the impossible by going for the chase and almost succeeded.

Later on, we got to see a different ball game altogether when Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin did everything possible to snatch away victory from Australia.

The two of them, along with Cheteshwar Pujara and Pant earlier, displayed a masterclass on showing grit, determination, character and never-say-die attitude. Not to mention, Vihari was injured while Jadeja, despite a severe injury, was all ready to bat if needed.

While saving the test match, the Indian team brought the good old days of test cricket alive. It is very rare these days for test matches to go on till full five days. There are even fewer instances of teams fighting for a draw. India not only did that but achieved it against all odds.

India batted for as many as 131 overs. This is the fourth highest number of overs they have batted in their test history to draw a match. They have equaled its 1979 record of batting for these many overs to save a match against Pakistan in Delhi. [See the table below]

India record — Source: Screenshot from Sony LIV

The fact that India last such long overs to save a match more than 40 years ago speaks volumes of this team’s achievement today. As pointed before, India did it without Kohli and with few players injured.

Before the test series, India had won the T20 series and didn’t do bad in the one-day series, thereby showing their adaptability in all formats of the game even in difficult overseas conditions.

He played 1 test but has ZERO tests to his name

January 3, 2021 by Keyur Seta 9 Comments

Being a cricket crazy country, India is filled with youngsters wanting to play for the national team. It is a dream that comes true for a very minute percentage of people, considering our huge population. Connor Williams from Baroda was once among those tiny percentages whose dream of playing test cricket for India came true.

However, he has 0 tests against his name despite playing one test match for India.

The backstory to Williams’ debut lies in the controversy in the second test at Port Elizabeth during India’s 2001-02 tour to South Africa. Four Indian players – Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Shiv Sunder Das and Deep Dasgupta – were booked by match referee Mike Denness for ‘excessive appealing.’ They faced a ban for one test match.

Captain Sourav Ganguly was banned for one test match and two one-day internationals for allegedly not being able to control the behavior of his team members. More shockingly, Sachin Tendulkar was banned for one test match for alleged ball tampering.

This not only infuriated the cricket fans back home but also the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India). Under the leadership of Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI demanded that Denness shouldn’t continue as the match referee in the next test at Centurion.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) sided with the BCCI and ensured Denness doesn’t even get to enter the stadium. What was worse for the controversial referee was that he couldn’t explain his stand at a press conference.

It was during this press conference that former Indian cricketer and commentator Ravi Shastri came up with his famous remark – “If Mike Denness cannot answer questions, why is he here? We know what he looks like.” [Read all about the controversy HERE]

It was in the 3rd test match of the series that Connor Williams made his test debut as an opener. He got the chance because Sehwag had to be dropped after facing one match ban. The debutant scored only 5 in the first innings but showed his class in the second with a gutsy 42, which contained some handsome boundaries.

Rare footage of Connor Williams batting in his only test

However, in the entire controversy, the ICC (International Cricket Council), sided with Denness and deemed the third test at Centurion as unofficial. The three test series got shortened to only two tests. South Africa won the series as they had won the first one and the second one, where the controversy erupted, turned into a draw.

Unfortunately, Williams could never play another test for India. He was selected in the next test series against England at home in 2002, but wasn’t selected in the playing eleven.

Also read: One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten

Williams is a part of strange turn of events where he played a test match for India and scored runs. But the match doesn’t exist in any record books [India lost that match by an innings and 73 runs] and hence, his international career stands at nil.

He could have become India’s 240^th test player. But it was Sanjay Bangar who grabbed that number in the series against England where he made his debut.

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After just 1 run in first 6 innings, Marvan Atapattu made a historic comeback

This is no 90s team, this is Naya Hindustan…

December 29, 2020 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

We will hear the phrase ‘historic win’ regularly for the next few days, at least till India plays the third test match in the series against Australia in 2021. Ajinkya Rahane and his men have displayed an example of determination in the Boxing Day [second] test. And this is not just because we beat Australia in Australia in a test match for just the eight time.

After being shockingly all-out for their lowest score ever of 36 runs in the second innings of the first test, India was down in the dumps [anther blow in 2020]. Plus, captain Virat Kohli, the star batsman who top-scored in the match, had to leave because of personal commitments.

To win the next match convincingly under such circumstances is nothing short of historic.

There were all kind of discussions going on before the start of this match on social media. People had assumed that India will lose the series 4-0. It was also said that even if India manages to draw one match, it will be quite an achievement. However, Rahane had other plans.

India-Australia Melbourne 2020 — Photo source: Manoj Tiwary (@tiwarymanoj) on Twitter

He lead from the front with the bat, by scoring a match-winning century in the first innings, and showed excellent captaincy skills while India was on field in both the innings. His bowling changes and field placements showed that he only believed in going for the kill despite what happened in the first test. And his bowlers rose to the occasion.

The ghost of 36 all out is well past now!

But not all is hunky dory and perfect for team India. We shouldn’t forget the numerous catches Australia dropped in the first innings. Things might have been different if they had held onto each one of them. One also can’t overlook how the team struggles to get the opposition tail out, which was the case here too.

Having said that, the team spirit and character strength shown in this match is unlike the Indian team of the bygone days. After losing the first two ODIs and getting 36 all out in the first match, there were talks about team India being back to the ways of the 1990s. The nightmare of India being 66 all out against South Africa in 1996 had resurfaced. But the Melbourne win has proved otherwise.

This is no 90s team. This is Naya Hindustan [New India]…

Also read:

When Swami Vivekananda took 7 wickets against the British club

When Indian supporters were in no MOOD to see India win

Who’ll motivate India like Sachin-Azhar did in 1997 in S Africa?

December 21, 2020 by Keyur Seta 2 Comments

Exactly 24 years ago in the winter of 1996, I was horrified to see India getting all-out for just 66 at Durban against South Africa in the second innings of the Boxing Day test match. It was India’s first overseas tour that I followed and it couldn’t have been worse.

It was also the first time I saw any side getting all out well before reaching 100. As it happened with the Indian team, it shook me more. I was sure it can’t get worse than this and I won’t see a lower score than this from India in my lifetime.

But I was proved horribly wrong 24 years later by the current Indian side which was bowled out for just 36 against Australia at Adelaide in the first test; their lowest total ever! It still appears unreal.

Highlights of India’s second innings at Adelaide

As the only time I saw India get all-out under 100 [in a test match] was in 1996, my mind keeps going back to that Durban test and the rest of the series.

That team’s morale was down in the dumps after that match. The mental baggage of that game was carried forward in the second test at Cape Town that started in the new year on 2 January 1997.

South Africa batted first and put behind a mammoth total of 529 for 7 declared. India displayed déjà vu of the first test after being 58 for 5 at one stage. It seemed India was set to repeat what happened in Durban.

But then came a partnership that brought a turnout not just on the scorecard but also in the Indian camp. From that score onwards, Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammed Azharuddin started counter-attacking in ways that we didn’t see in test matches then.

The two experienced blokes started hammering every bowler of the opposition and built a huge partnership of 222 runs. Azhar scored 115 off just 100 balls with 19 fours and a six. Tendulkar, on the other hand, made 169 with 26 fours.

He was the last man to get out when Adam Bacher pulled off one of the most spectacular catches of all time at deep square leg. The batsman was visibly stunned and stood his ground for some time, unable to believe his eyes.

India eventually lost that match. However, that partnership between Tendulkar and Azhar brought about a psychological change in the side. It put across a message that we can bat freely and fearlessly even against South Africa in South Africa, which was tough in those days.

Sachin-Azhar partnership at Cape Town in 1997

The effect of this was seen in the third test at Johannesburg when the team looked much more determined. India batted first and posted a good score of 410, helped by Rahul Dravid’s impressive 148.

In reply, South Africa were all out for 321. After getting a healthy lead, India batted decently in the second innings and set South Africa a target of 356 runs. India looked like winning the match after reducing the Proteas to 228 for 8. Unfortunately, rain and bad light ensured that the match turned out to be a draw; a match India should have won.

Also see: When Javagal Srinath was on a hat-trick thrice against South Africa

The major difference between the Durban test and the recent first test against Australia is that in the former we were never in position to dominate. In fact, we were 100 all out in the first innings and that had almost sealed the match for South Africa.

However, despite India being in a dominating position on day two in the recent test, the current blow is a bigger one. Getting all out on a score as low as 36 can be detrimental to the morale of any team.

Twenty-four years ago, Sachin and Azhar removed that barrier for India.

Who will do that this time around?

Also read:

When Swami Vivekananda took 7 wickets against the British club

When Indian supporters were in no MOOD to see India win

Rape threats don’t go against Facebook’s ‘community standards’

December 19, 2020 by Keyur Seta 2 Comments

The major negative point of social media, as we all must have seen, is hateful comments. And these hate comments become the worst when they become rape threats to women. Like other social media platforms, such comments are seen regularly on Facebook.

Also like other platforms, Facebook gives you an option to report a comment that appears hateful, violent or derogatory. The social media platform has in place, what they call, ‘community standards.’ As per them, any comment violating these guidelines will be either removed or the person commenting will face termination of his or her account.

However, as horrific as it may sound, rape threats don’t go against the so-called community guidelines of Facebook. I realized this recently when I reported a comment where someone received a rape threat.

Recently, while scrolling through Facebook, I came across a picture of a Marathi film actress shared by a page promoting Marathi films. I could see the comments where people criticized her because they believed she was skimpily dressed.

I didn’t think much about these comments as, unfortunately, I have got used to it. We are surrounded by people with sexist mind-sets; those whose blood boils when they see a woman wearing less clothes. But there was one comment, in Marathi, which shook me.

A man commenter under the picture – “Such people should be raped!” [See the comment below]

Now, this was very serious. I quickly reported the comment and waited for Facebook to get back to me.

I got a response the next day and, as weird as it may sound, they said in their response that the comment doesn’t go against their ‘community standards.’ Let that sink in. [See the image below]

Facebook response to rape threat — Facebook’s response

If a rape threat, which is the worst form of comment, doesn’t go against their so-called standards, what exactly does?

Also read: #JusticeForSSR has no place on news channels now: Who gained, who lost?

My case isn’t the only one, by the way. When I shared this on Facebook, quite a few people said they have experienced the same thing. A cursory Google search will also enlighten you about others having had the same experience, which you can read HERE.

Over the years, I have experienced Facebook doing nothing about toxic communal and sexist posts I reported. But this takes their lack of seriousness for women safety on their platform to another level.