‘Should have been dead’: KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy faced social media hate after his COVID-19 bout halted IPL

With cricket being played in the bio-bubble for almost one and a half years now since COVID-19 hit the world, the importance of mental health has become all the more necessary and slowly and gradually it has become part of the dinner table talks.

On Sunday, the World Mental Health Day, Kolkata Knight Riders posted a video about the same where the mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and Dinesh Karthik talked about the social media hate and what it does to one’s mindset.

Chakravarthy and his KKR teammate Sandeep Warrier had tested positive during the first half of the IPL 2021 in India after which the tournament was suspended as more cases started coming out of the bio-bubble and naturally the fans were disappointed with cricket being stopped midway. However, their disappointment became personal to Chakravarthy on social media for no fault of his, about which he talked about in the video.

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind This #WorldMentalHeathDay, let’s pledge to refrain from social media trolling as you never know the damage it may cause #IPL2021,” the caption of the post in which Abhishek Nayar also spoke, read.

“I remember when Dr. Srikanth just called and I still remember the words he told me, it’s unfortunately positive Varun. So that just shattered everything. I really didn’t know that it is going to blow up so much. I even got emails and messages on Instagram where people told me “Rather you should have been dead,” Varun Chakravarthy said in the video.

“And that’s where I feel sometimes social media needs to be a kinder place. People don’t realize the gravity of what they say. Be it memes, be it videos, be it you know just the use of words. It is a spur of the moment thing for them at that point of time instinctively what they feel, they just put it out there, not realizing what the person reading it will go through,” Dinesh Karthik added.

“But I felt that is ridiculous. You know to go back and blame someone, a guy like Varun who is anyway so intense and takes things so seriously in life. I feel a little empathy was required. And I felt it was taken very wrongly,” Nayar said.

In a world where you can be anything, be kind 

This #WorldMentalHeathDay, let’s pledge to refrain from social media trolling as you never know the damage it may cause.#KKRFilms x Payments on @amazonIN #PayAmazonSe #KKR #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/EQO3ZvTOn5

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) October 10, 2021