Arshdeep Singh Faces Backlash Over Tilak Varma Video — Ipl 2026 Schedule
Arshdeep Singh faces criticism after a viral video showed him making a distasteful remark about Tilak Varma, and the phrase at the center of it was ipl 2026 schedule-linked because the players were on India’s T20 World Cup-winning side in March. Tilak Varma looked amused in the clip. That has not muted the response around the wording itself.
Arshdeep Singh and Tilak Varma
The remark was the word “darkie.” Arshdeep is 27 years old, and the video put him under scrutiny after he and Tilak won the T20 World Cup together in March. The clip turned a dressing-room moment into a wider argument about what players say to each other in public and what gets normalized.
The immediate friction is not about a missed match or a selection call. It is about language that lands differently once it leaves a private setting, especially when one player is seen smiling while another faces criticism for the phrase he used. That contrast has pushed the story beyond a single viral clip.
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and BCCI
Former India legspinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan said he had been subjected to unfair treatment all his life because of his skin colour. The article frames the issue as ignorance rather than racism or colorism, and says such language is common in some Punjabi social settings but is also frowned upon by an educated section.
That wider concern is why the Board of Control for Cricket in India is being told to educate cricketers. Many begin playing in their teenage years, and the article says their education gets compromised, leaving the system with players who can reach elite cricket without the language or social grounding to recognize why some remarks cross a line.
Ishant Sharma and Sarfaraz Ahmed
The piece points to earlier examples to show this is not a one-off. Ishant Sharma was accused of calling West Indies’ Daren Sammy a darkie a few years ago at Sunrisers Hyderabad, and former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed committed the same offence against South Africa’s Andile Phehlukwayo.
Sarfaraz later received a four-game ban. That penalty is the clearest sign in the background of the current case: cricket has seen this language before, and the sport has already shown it can move beyond criticism when the line is crossed. For Arshdeep, the attention now sits on the video itself and the broader education gap the article says cricket keeps leaving open.
