On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) ran a poll to decide who is the best cricketer as a captain. The intention of the poll by the ICC was to seek the opinion of the public regarding the greatest player as captain.
The ICC, through a series of tweets, put out infographics explaining how averages of players improved after these players became captain of their respective sides. The ICC poll included three legendary players and a Pakistani cricketer in the poll. The three legends included in the poll were Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli, South Africa captain AB de Villiers, Australia women’s cricket team skipper Meg Lanning. Pakistan’s former captain and current Prime Minister Imran Khan was also included in the poll by the ICC.
Captaincy proved a blessing for some extraordinary cricketers 🧢🏏
— ICC (@ICC) January 12, 2021
Their averages improved as leaders 📈
You decide which of these ‘pacesetters’ were the best among these geniuses! pic.twitter.com/yWEp4WgMun
As a day progressed, Indian cricket captain was handsomely winning the poll with a massive margin over the other three players. With Virat Kohli continuing to receive a lot many votes, the Pakistani establishment got triggered leading to their usage of its cheap trick of employing massive state-sponsored social media groups to influence the poll. Soon, votes started to pour in favour of former Pakistan captain Imran Khan.
However, on Wednesday, after over 5,00,000 votes cast, the poll went towards a nail-biting finish between Virat Kohli and Imran Khan. In the end, with the massive backing by the Pakistani state and its media’s nationwide campaign, surprisingly just for a Twitter poll, former Pakistan captain took a slender leader to emerge victorious in the ICC poll.
In the poll, Virat Kohli had 46.2 per cent of the vote while Imran Khan received 47.3 percent of the total 5,36,346 votes. Meanwhile, AB de Villiers received only seven percent of the vote while Australian women’s team captian Meg Lanning unfortunately received only one percent.
Islamists, anti-Modi Indian trolls voted in favour of Imran Khan
Shockingly, not just Pakistani Twitter accounts and bots managed by the Inter-Services Public Relations, the propaganda arm of the Pakistan Armed forces, several Indians also voted in favour of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Twitter poll.
One user Syeda Uzma said that she was perhaps guilty of mixing sports with politics and went on to claim that she voted for Imran Khan because of his efforts in establishing the cancer hospital and also for ensuring safety of minorities in his country.
Another Indian social media user Waseem Siddiqui highlighted that even though Virat Kohli was way ahead in the poll but if one considers sportsmanship and leadership, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan was going to win the race. Siddiqui said it is not about country but about who do you think deserves it.
Shockingly, Anti-Modi troll network ‘Team Bann’ that is jointly run by Aam Aadmi Party IT cell and Congress party trolls such as Twitter user @ROFLGandhi_, also joined in support of the Pakistani counterparts in favour of former Pakistani captain Imran Khan.
The ‘Team Baan’, which indulges in mass rigging of Twitter polls with the help of bots and often resort to posting abusive rants on social media against Hindus and BJP supporters, unsurprisingly campaigned on behalf of Imran Khan and voted for Pakistan Prime Minister Khan in the Twitter poll ran by the ICC.
Here is the image of ‘Team Baan’ supporting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan instead of Indian Cricket captain Virat Kohli.
Another member of Team Baan also voted in favour of Imran Khan in the ICC poll.
Addition to Indian accounts favouring Pakistan PM Imran Khan in the Twitter poll, Pakistan used its state power to influence the Twitter poll in favour of its leader Imran Khan.
Pakistan media runs a nationwide campaign in favour of Imran Khan
Pakistan media ran a news to influence the Twitter poll so that former Pakistan cricketer Imran Khan, who is now the Prime Minister of the country, did not lose in the poll against Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli. Pakistani bots and social media users, who perhaps have no idea how voting in real life feels like, enthusiastically voted on a Twitter poll like never before.
It seemed like the Inter-Services Public Relations, the propaganda arm of the Pakistan Armed forces, did not want their Prime Minister to humiliatingly lose to Indian yet again and arranged for some votes on Twitter to make sure that he wins the Twitter poll at least. To add this, the Pakistan media too jumped into the scene to run a national campaign just for a Twitter poll in favour of Imran Khan.
Despite all the rigging and bot accounts, the Pakistan captain only managed to win the Twitter poll by a slender margin of over 1 per cent of votes. However, a few Indian, in their hatred for Modi, too joined Pakistanis to make sure that an Indian never won the poll, instead Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan emerged victorious in the Twitter poll.
