Orkut fakes turn to Sachins and Souravs

After the Test series in England, Sourav Ganguly sends a message to Sachin Tendulkar saying, "Well played but we need a century yaar."
Tendulkar, who is trying to quit smoking, wants to date young girls and have intimate chats with them.

* Maria Sharapova sends her match updates to Tendulkar regularly.

None of this is true, of course. But each one of them and a lot more is on Orkut — in fact, there are over 250 "personal pages" devoted to the Little Master. The truth is that not one in Team India — save pacer S Sreesanth — has an account on Google’s social networking site.

Another instance of cyber mischief lampooning and misrepresenting public figures? Yes. For, while the police are adopting a wait and watch policy, the Indian cricket board says its hands are tied.

Sanjay Mohite, DCP (enforcement), says the police can’t take a suo motu action. "There are infinite number of websites, so it is tough to keep a watch. But in case someone complains, we can definitely track down the person who has done this mischief," he says.

Surprisingly, these fake personal pages of cricket stars have appeared even after objectionable content on Orkut’s "we hate India" community’s message board became the premise of a PIL and defamatory remarks on the site about Chhatrapati Shivaji and Bal Thackeray provoked street protests.

Now, with Orkut becoming controversial, several cyber cafes in Mumbai don’t allow users to access this Google splinter.

The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), which hasn’t been able to launch its own website for two years, isn’t aware about the cyber slander directed at their players. Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI chief administrative officer, says he hasn’t heard about these fake pages. "Well, no one can do anything much about these things. It’s something that’s beyond our control," he says.

Though the BCCI chooses to dismiss these fake star profiles as unwanted Internet junk, recently, similar mischief concerning Australian cricketers did raise a stink. Cricket Australia took strong exception to their players being ridiculed on MySpace — an Orkut-like public networking website.

The home page of a fake Shane Watson web page on MySpace showed him in cricket gear minus the flannels with objectionable text strewn all over. Cricket Australia, which dubbed it "a malice", is now closely working with MySpace to curb the trend. Even the Australia Cricketers’ Association condemned the practice and described it as "pathetic exploitation by people who have nothing better to do with their time".

Related Post
Twenty20 World Cup to be aired in 105 countries
ESPN STAR SPORTS signs broadcast deals in 105 countries for ICC World Twenty20
Idea in race for ICC sponsorship
Govt dumps DDs encryption proposal of Nimbus
ESPN STAR SPORTS signs broadcast deals in 105 countries for ICC World Twenty20
ESPN Star Sports announces Dream Job
Ten Sports in deal with Goal TV for licensing and production
ESPN gets broadcast rights of India-Scotland ODI
Yousuf, Razzaq have signed ICL
Former Under-19 skipper on ICL’s shopping list
Younis Khan rejects ICL offer
Political clout building in ICL's favour
Indian Cricket League launches official website
Cricket League can use Railway stadiums said Lalu
ICL nothing more than 'Micky Mouse Cricket'
ICL hits back at the BCCI for threatening
Join ICL 'n face life ban, warns BCCI
Pak ban players from new ICL