Facebook is now trending with ‘Liton Das’ and ‘Liton Discount.’ A number of e-commerce platforms announced the 'Liton Offer' during the Bangladesh vs West Indies match yesterday.
According to the offer, the more runs Liton Das scores in the match against West Indies, the more discount will be given on their products.
Ultimately, a 44 runs innings by the 27-years-old opening batsman made the companies give away the highest number of offers in the country's online trend. Forgetting the grief of the match result, the buyers were seen to take this offer with interest.
However, whether anyone has got any product with a 44 per cent discount is yet to be known.
Abriti Ahmed, a 3 rd year student of Journalism from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) remarked that despite the defeat in the game, she is really excited about the offer as she was planning to buy some books anyway.
On the other hand, another student from the same department and institution, Razuan Ahmed, thinks that it is a humiliation for a cricketer.
"Those who did this humiliation are to blame. At the same time, the team management also has the responsibility. Liton Das was not in form for quite some time. The management should have given him a break."
Liton’s statistics will speak how horrible form he is in. Das has taken 50 or above runs in only 4 matches out of his 44 T20Is. In his last 6 matches in the tournament, he scored 5, 6, 29, 16, 9 and 44 respectively.
The companies who created the trend, did this to join the fans who have been criticising and trolling Liton heavily on Social Media for quite some time now.
Tohidul Islam Raso, a former Zila level (2nd Divisional) cricketer considers this incidence as a sick marketing strategy. Any cricketer enters the field to give their best but they may not always succeed.
If one fails consistently, the team management can exclude him and give him a break. Fans can make constructive criticism, but such a sick marketing strategy greatly reduces the morale of a cricketer, feels Tohidul.
“Yes, as a company you can take any marketing strategy but just picking up something trendy and presenting an individual in such a way to attract people can raise questions about the ethics of the company,” he added.
On her Facebook account, Devashri Biswas Sonchita, Liton’s wife wrote the following status being disgusted.
“The thing is, it’s not the actual problem every time if someone miss the catch or scores poor..Sometimes the problem is only and only with the particular person or his name! It was fine for us to see people mocking or making memes,as we’re already used to it. But, when I realised there’s some business pages who’s trying to run their business by using his name or indirectly praying for his poor performance,I’ve lost my words. Imagine being this much evil and rotten minded person, so you’re praying a player should scores poor in match, for your business strategy! Shame !!!”
(The Facebook status is copied from Sonchita’s Facebook profile without any change.)
While some are criticizing the offers given by the companies, it is not an uncommon practice at all.
Mentioning the Indian police’s promotional campaign, Mohammad Saiful Islam, a journalist and a sports fan said, “I think there is nothing to take personally and get hurt at since social media is dynamic today. People often pick things from the sport they watch to make memes, fun and staff.”
“Indian police made funny promotional billboards using Indian cricketers' mess on the ground. So, what's wrong in their giving a price discount on books in the name of a cricketer who has been the subject of social media sarcasm for a long time for his poor performance?” asked Saiful.
Whether it was ethical or not is debatable. But some people really found it interesting as they had the chance to buy things, thanks to Liton gathering some runs on board finally.
rabbi.zahidur@gmail.com