Geeta Basra, Harbhajan Singh’s Wife, Talks About Women Being Targeted For Their Partner’s Bad Performance On The Pitch

Geeta Basra, Harbhajan Singh’s Wife, Talks About Women Being Targeted For Their Partner’s Bad Performance On The Pitch

I don’t watch cricket, never fully understood the charm of the sport. I know a lot of you are going to give me hate for this but it’s the truth. However, my opinion of cricket is a highly unpopular one, especially in India. There are only a few times when all Indians are on the same page and united and one of those times is when there is a cricket match on. However, now it’s no longer merely a sport. It’s also a breeding ground for misogyny. You see, when the players don’t bring their A-game to the pitch, their wives and girlfriends are targetted and called a distraction or worse. If I had a penny for every time Anushka Sharma was targetted for her husband’s poor performance, I would be as rich as her. And now, talking about this very relevant and growing problem is actress and Geeta Basra who is married to star cricketer Harbhajan Singh. 

Before I tell you what she said, let me emphasize the gravity of this problem. The last we spoke about this was just a few weeks ago because some 16-year-old kid from Gujarat had sent rape threats to MS Dhoni’s 5-year-old daughter. This was after MS Dhoni’s team CSK lost an IPL match. So yeah, we need to talk about this as much as we can until these obsessive cricket fans understand that it’s not okay to blame a woman for her man’s losses. That is exactly what Geeta Basra is saying in her interview

She talks about how wives and girlfriends of cricketers are attacked because they are easy targets. Geeta says, “People who’re die-hard fans of the sport, they need some kind of excuse, or scapegoat. For them, wives and girlfriends are easy targets. They target them and say it happened because of them, they’re a bad omen, but don’t say anything when someone does perform well.” 

Also Read: A Male Pakistani Sports Reporter Commented On A Woman Commentator Because She Wore Heels To A Cricket Pitch. He Got Schooled

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Further adding, “It’s easy to be more negative than it’s to be positive. People find it easy to go into the negative zone and demolish someone, throw remarks at someone, blame and curse someone than praise them. They say ‘Because of her, he performed badly’. Us wives are not going and playing for them, neither are we a part of the team or training them. It’s just easy to make wives the soft targets.” 

Women are treated as soft targets. I know it sounds like a horrible thing to say but it’s the truth. I would say that it needs to change but not only is that a given, but it’s also going to take a long time. The thing is, blaming and trolling wives and girlfriends for the player’s mistakes is extremely unwarranted and unacceptable. 

It’s like Geeta Basra said, they don’t go on the pitch and play. Women should not be held accountable for their man’s performance on the field, because they have nothing to do with it. Besides, what kind of hypocrisy is this? They are blamed when the men play badly but not appreciated when they play well? It should go both ways. Or maybe let’s just stop pointing fingers at all. It’s a game after all. You win some and you lose some. There is no need to be misogynistic and sexist about it. 

When Geeta Basra was asked whether she would get trolled when Harbhajan didn’t play well and how she dealt with it she said, “That’s never bothered me. I don’t care about all that, it’s part of the negativity. It does hurt, for we go for enjoyment of the game and support our spouses, but these things are uncalled for.” 

People do tend to go a tad overboard when it comes to cricket but this horrid behaviour of blaming the women and calling them names on social media needs to stop.

https://thehauterfly.com/lifestyle/mithali-raj-said-covid-19-has-set-womens-cricket-in-india-back-by-few-years-women-in-sports-should-get-equal-opportunities/

Mitali Shah

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