Actor Anushka Sharma, who has often been trolled and abused online whenever her husband and Team India skipper Virat Kohli's performance dipped, finally took to social media today to “speak up because someone's silence cannot be taken as their weakness”.
Her post came hours after reports surfaced that former India cricketer Farokh Engineer, while commenting on the incompetency of the current selection committee, said they were busy getting her tea during the ICC World Cup.
In an interview with The Times of India, the 82-year-old former wicketkeeper said, “I didn't even know one of the selectors during the World Cup and I asked him who the hell he was, because he was wearing the India blazer and he said he was one of the selectors. All they were doing was getting Anushka Sharma cups of tea.” He went on to call the MSK Prasad-led committee a “Mickey Mouse selection committee”, and added that its members have neither the appropriate qualification nor experience.
In her post, Anushka Sharma categorically said that it was not a “retort” to Farokh Engineer's comment. “They (the earlier accusations) have all been regressive and horrible and malicious and vicious.... I am not and will not be a pawn to be used by anyone's thoughts or belief or agendas and next time you want to use my name to discredit someone or the board or even my husband, do it with facts and proof & leave me OUT of it,” she wrote.
Anushka said she stayed quiet through all times she was blamed for Kohli's poor performance and other “most baseless things involving Indian cricket” because she saw “dignity & truth embedded in the shadow of my silence”. She said she decided to speak up because he silence had made the “lies spitted against” her seem true.
The actor also hinted at all the instances when she kept quiet even when her name was used in “fabricated stories” such as that she was part of closed-door team meetings, that she was given preferential treatment, or that she overstayed her authorised time with Kohli on foreign tours. Anushka denied all such rumours and asserted that she had always bought her own tickets for matches and flights, and that she has “always and always followed the protocol”.
Anushka, however, ended the post with a tinge of humour, saying that “... and for the record, I drink coffee”, taking a dig at Engineer's “tea” remark.