An Indian national cricketer who plays for Indian Premier league franchise Gujarat Titans, posted an Islamophobic post to his Instagram account, however, after public anger the fast bowler took down the story.
Social media users alleged that the cricketer Yash Dayal “was posting Islamophobic stories on Instagram and generalising” the Muslim community.
Yash Dayal's new Instagram story after deleting that Anti-Muslim story. pic.twitter.com/WfDZWfjTtU
— Md Asif Khan (@imMAK02) June 5, 2023
The fast bowler faced severe backlash from fans and other social media users who have criticized him for stirring up controversy on a sensitive subject, reported Muslim Mirror.
Technology Journalist, Abhishek Baxi, took to Twitter and wrote “A @BCCI Uttar Pradesh and @gujarat_titans player, Yash Dayal, posted this on Instagram. He has since deleted it. – No action against him? – Hasn’t he let down his Muslim teammates? – How does team management work out with a bigoted individual in a team sport?”
Karthik Krishnaswamy said, “Yash Dayal’s post is only a symptom of the horrors that the BJP has unleashed across the country, empowering right-wing militias to harass interfaith couples with impunity and turning fearmongering over “love jihad” into de facto state policy.”
“Yash Dayal lost 8 kgs when Rinku Singh smashed him for 5 sixes, and he knew his career was almost over. Now, he is attempting to save his career by posting Islamophobic content on Instagram in an attempt to gain support from radicals,” another user said.
Some people, however, extended their support to Yash and called him a Hindu Sher (Hindu lion). “Lord Yash Dayal should be immediately made captain of Gujrat Titans Landya mc licking Rashid, Noor, Shami as he gets carried by them that is not how hindu is. He is like Yash Dayal who did not give fck about these buslim talibani jihadis and showed every mc jihadi bslim his aukat,” a user wrote in Yash Dayal’s support.
Some called him modern-day Savarkar.
Following the controversy, Dayal took to his Instagram account again and issued an apology, clarifying that the previous story was posted “by mistake”.