Brisbane Heat coach Darren Lehmann’s Twitter account hacked during BBL game

It seems that social media accounts hacking has become the latest pastime of miscreants all over the world and for some reason, cricketers are also on their list, with the past year 2019 seeing multiple cricket accounts being broken into for either monetary gains or spreading some message of hatred. This is troublesome as the fans of such players might get influenced by what is posted on their accounts.

Therefore, when former Australia coach and current coach of Big Bash League team Brisbane Heat Darren Lehmann’s Twitter account was hacked; things became problematic very quickly. In 2019 as well, Australian cricketer Shane Watson was targeted by miscreants when both of his Twitter and Instagram accounts were hacked and controversial photos were uploaded. Even Pakistani opener Fakhar Zaman wasn’t spared as well.

Brisbane Heat confirm Darren Lehmann’s Twitter account being hacked

The hacker changed the name of Lehmann’s Twitter account to Qassem Soleimani | F**K Iran and posted hate messages and changed information in his bio as well. Meanwhile, the Brisbane Heat’s official Twitter acknowledged the same.

Heat posted on their account that, “Hi Heat fans, thanks for the messages. We are aware our coach Darren Lehmann’s Twitter account has been hacked and are working closely with Twitter to rectify the situation. We apologize for any offense caused this evening.”

Hi Heat fans, thanks for the messages. We are aware our coach Darren Lehmann's Twitter account has been hacked and are working closely with Twitter to rectify the situation. We apologise for any offence caused this evening.#BBL09

— Brisbane Heat (@HeatBBL) January 6, 2020

Meanwhile, in a now-deleted tweet, the hacker responded to Heat’s message on Twitter and said, “Im not hacked What the F**K. I Quit My job As Coach Im Going To Perth They Better Anyway.” It was shared by an Instagram account “63notout.forever_backup”.

View this post on Instagram

This is more exciting than the game 🤣 #BBL09

A post shared by Aussie Aussie Aussie 🇦🇺🇦🇺 (@63notout.forever_backup) on Jan 6, 2020 at 3:15am PST

A year before in January 2019, Cricket South Africa’s account on Twitter was also hacked by a Bitcoin hacker and spread false information that the cricket board was partnering with a bitcoin company to conduct a lottery. While in October of the same year, Shane Watson had both his Twitter and Instagram hacked and malicious posts were made before the situation was controlled and admin rights were gained back.

Meanwhile, the Heat defeated Thunder in a rain-affected clash at Sydney Showground Stadium, after Tom Banton slammed 56 in just 19 balls which included five consecutive sixes of Arjun Nair’s one over. The heat made 119/4 in 8 overs and kept Thunder to 60/4, winning the match by 16 runs via the DL method.