Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw was recently trolled on the internet for his weight gain and receding hairline after a picture of him went viral. In the photo, the batsman was seen celebrating after a spectacular innings in the English One Day Cup. He scored 244 runs off 153 balls for his team Northamptonshire, which was playing against Somerset in the United Kingdom. However, rather than praising Mr Shaw's efforts, the internet came down heavily on him. Author and entrepreneur Ankur Warikoo also trolled him for his appearance but later apologised for his "insensitive" post.
On August 10, a user posted the picture of Mr Shaw on X, formerly Twitter. He wrote in the caption, "Indian diet and genetics are unparalleled This is a 23 year old Indian athlete 23!" Replying to the same, Mr Warikoo said, "Bet his mom thinks 'patla ho gaya hai' :))." This comment from the author drew criticism from many people on social media. A few people pointed out that the 23-year-old Indian player lost his mother when he was just a kid.
"Apparently doing ePiC sHiT these days involves publicly mocking a player's weight and invoking their dead mother. Write another book about it," said a user.
Another person said, "I appreciate your apology, @warikoo, but whether they have a mom or not, making fun of someone for their weight is never funny. It will always be insensitive. Shouldn't you be more responsible in what you tweet or share due to your 'influencer' status?"
"Absolutely pathetic. Firstly body shaming and then not being sensitive enough to know that his mother passed away when he was 4. Pseudo humour ke naam pe people cross lines so easily," added another person.
"Atleast get to read about him lol," added fourth person.
A few hours later, Mr Warikoo realised his mistake and said that his post was "extremely insensitive" and was a "horrible mistake". He said in a post, "I realize my mistake after people's responses. This pic is Prithvi Shaw's who lost his mother at the age of 4. Which makes my post extremely insensitive and not something I am proud of. In an attempt to invoke my mom's natural reaction to my fitness levels in my 20s, I made a horrible mistake."
He continued on the social media platform, "@PrithviShaw I do not expect you to read this or least of all forgive me. But it is my responsibility to apologize for this. I am truly sorry. For clarification - I do not follow cricket actively, so I was not aware of Prithvi (beyond his name). Would have acted differently was I aware of him and his history. PS: Not deleting this post, so that this continues to act as a reminder to me."