Alex Hartley reveals receiving death threats after Rory Burns slammed her for tweet

England women’s team’s cricketer Alex Hartley has revealed the online abuse she has received following her tweet after England’s loss to India in the third Test last week. Hartley’s tweet came moments after India thrashed England by ten wickets inside two days at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad to take an unassailable lead.

In a disastrous batting performance, England managed only 112 runs in their first innings. They, however, did well to bowl out India for just 145 and claw their way back into the game. But the visitors failed with the bat again in the second innings and were all out for just 81. Set a target of 49, India reached home inside eight overs without losing any wicket.

And as England were on the verge of a humiliating defeat, Hartley took to Twitter to promote the women’s ODI with New Zealand by cheekily writing: “Nice of the England boys to get this Test match finished just before England Women play tonight.”

Hartley might have seen the funnier side of her tweet but it did not go down well with many including some England men team’s stars.

England Test opener Rory Burns lashed out at Hartley for her tweet and wrote: “Very disappointing attitude considering all the ‘boys’ do to support the women’s game.” His teammates Ben Stokes and James Anderson liked the tweet too before he deleted it. Another England player Ben Duckett also slammed Hartley by calling it an “average tweet”.

Alex Hartley reveals abuse

The tweet has not only invited criticism but also vile abuse for Alex Hartley. She pointed out how England players and support staff liking Burns’ tweet highlighted the issues surrounding women’s cricket. She also insisted that the women’s game has not received enough support from the men’s team. Hartley then went on to reveal the abuses she received and said that she would not wish those abuse on anybody.

“I’ve described my tweet on my podcast [No Balls, with Hartley’s best friend, the England bowler Kate Cross] as ‘clumsy’, and I can see that an England player seeing it would be really annoyed as it seems like I was celebrating their loss. I wasn’t, and before Rory’s tweet it had gone down really well with lots of people saying ‘we’ll watch the women now’. The onslaught I got after Rory retweeted it I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” Hartley was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“I was really disappointed in the fact that England players, county players, England management, staff liked the tweet from Rory. I just think it highlights a lot of other issues in and around women’s sport that I really didn’t want to bring up and talk about, but have to now. I don’t think we’re supported enough by the men and it was a real shame that they believe they do support us. I think I even had Samit Patel writing, ‘Why would you tweet about women’s cricket?’, which is such a shame. I just hope some good can come of it and it will start conversations behind closed doors,” she added.

Hartley revealed she received death threats from trolls on social media over her tweet. She revealed that she was called a bad role model. Calling those who abused her ‘sad individuals’, she also claimed that the users targeted her only because she was a female.

“If you want to give me death threats you’re the one with issues. I just think they’re sad individuals. I really don’t think I deserve to have people telling me to die [in a hole] and that I’m a really bad role model and women’s sport is rubbish and not worth watching. And I genuinely believe people only jumped on the back of my tweet because I’m a female, which is another issue,” she added.