When Jessica Davies—Travis Head’s wife—opened up about the flood of online abuse her family faced after Head’s on-field spat with Virat Kohli, it wasn’t just another case of fans going too far. Same with Shrestha Iyer, who faced a barrage of hate just for showing up in a lighthearted video with the Punjab Kings’ social media crew. This isn’t about “passionate fandom” gone wrong; it’s the fallout from something much bigger. Over the past ten years, cricket’s commercial side has quietly—and sometimes knowingly—helped build a toxic, thriving hate market that no one seems able to control now.
It all started with aggressive social media marketing, but now, it’s something uglier. You don’t have to dig deep to find agencies that’ll take anywhere from Rs 25,000 up to Rs 2 lakh to run hate campaigns against a player, according to one industry insider who spoke to PTI.
If someone wants a campaign run, they get access to custom stats to make the topic trend. There’s a price list: trending for a few hours costs less, trending for days means more cash. This isn’t some underground secret.
Everything shifted for players about a decade ago. Suddenly, social media wasn’t just for chatting with fans or sharing practice videos—it turned into a goldmine. Player popularity online started influencing digital sponsorships, especially as TV ad money began to dry up. One viral hashtag could mean endorsement offers worth crores. At that point, the whole system pivoted.
Here’s where sports management firms jumped in. One BCCI official talked about how these managers carefully scanned through social media aggregators with strong followings and pulled them in to boost their players’ profiles.
Fan clubs exploded. Algorithms on these platforms gave a bigger push to outrage and abuse than to thoughtful analysis or genuine cricket talk. The line between fun banter and full-blown propaganda disappeared. Now, agencies, managers, and social media operators realized they could boost a star or crush a rival—nothing had to be organic.
But things got out of hand fast. Suddenly bots and burner accounts were everywhere. Rival fan groups turned into angry online mobs. Manufactured trends started shaping what people actually believed and discussed.
And it wasn’t just players getting attacked anymore. Wives, sisters, even kids became easy targets. The risk is low when you’re anonymous and cruelty is rewarded with attention.
Jessica Davies, Shrestha Iyer—they’re paying the price because the cricket business spent years chasing clicks and engagement, fueling polarization online without a second thought about the fallout.
The scary part? The very machine that once obsessed over those engagement numbers is now staring at the mess it made—shocked at the ugly thing it built.
