Former Indian Test cricketer Laxman Sivaramakrishnan asks cricket commentators from all over the world to stop using the term “death overs” to describe the final few overs of the match. His Twitter post making this request eventually became a laughing stock for all cricket fans who started making bizarre requests of their own.

Cricket, just like all other sports, has some of its own terms and expressions which only make sense when heard on seen within the context of the game. On their own, some of these terms may have a misleading or negative effect on some people.

Or at least that was the case with Sivaramakrishnan, who wrote in a Twitter post how he feels the use of the term “death overs” in a game of cricket may feel a bit too insensitive considering the fact that the country is going through a major pandemic and there have been a lot of deaths because of it.

The 56-year old even suggested some alternatives to “death overs” and recommended the use of terms like “slog overs” or even “end overs” and suggested that because nobody really “dies” in the final overs of a match, the words should be cancelled from the cricket dictionary.

“Request to all commentators, please don’t say “ DEATH OVERS”. Either call it slog overs or end overs. We are going through a tough time. Death is not a nice word. The last ten overs are definitely important overs but one doesn’t die if it doesn’t go the team’s way.#SAvIND,” he wrote from his official Twitter account.

It did not take long for the fans of cricket to pay Sivaramakrishnan a visit at his Twitter handle and drop a couple of weird requests of their own, making the responses to his post, some of the most hilarious ones out there on any social media platform:

Time to stop calling it "NO BALL" cause the ball is right there in the ground. Why spread false information in this time of crisis?

— Heisenberg (@internetumpire) January 19, 2022

Don't say fine leg it's remind me katrina Kaif

— Prashant Mishra (@prashant_betu) January 19, 2022

Stop using the word 'collapse' bcz our economy has already collapsed under this pandemic

— Muskan (@_mussskan_) January 19, 2022

Don't call it retired hurt. Why would you want to hurt someone who is already retired?

— Chicken Man (@Gustavofring_45) January 19, 2022

Cricket itself is quite discriminatory. You cannot play with a cricket. It also has a life.

— Ravi Kumar (@RaviKum15417577) January 19, 2022

Request to all commentators, please don't say 'fine leg'. It's not a nice phrase. It's used by roadside rowdies to tease women.

— Shankspeare™ (@Goofyshanks) January 19, 2022

While Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is a well-respected member of the Indian cricket fraternity and is loved by all the fans of the game, this was a prime example of exaggerating a situation where there was absolutely no conflict. Obviously, none of the commentators actually think about or talk about people dying when they say the term “death overs”.

Sensitivity towards others’ feelings is a great quality to have but this particular case was simply about overthinking things and the kind of responses he got because of it, tells the story in itself. At the core of all these tweets, the fans criticised Sivaramakrishnan for trying to add the “woke culture” to cricket commentary:

Wokeism in cricket commentary https://t.co/s7blOrlROM

— Devashish (@deva_ojha) January 20, 2022

Arre yaar. So much sensitivity. Next is what? Calling "Group of Death" as "Group of Vaccines"? https://t.co/fOTTDciKFE

— 𝕂𝕀ℕ𝔾 (@KingInAsgard) January 20, 2022

What a sh*t opinion,just like your biased commentary https://t.co/8KRK0wijV0

— Manish Belani (@belanish11) January 20, 2022

Proper boomer Indian cricket uncle https://t.co/t02HRHgZR4

— Rahil Malhotra (@rahilmalhotra01) January 19, 2022

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