Ex-player gets death threats

Former international women’s cricketer Alex Hartley received death threats after her tongue-incheek promotion for a game between the White Ferns and her exEngland team-mates.

Hartley recently tweeted ‘‘Nice of the England boys to get this test match finished just before England Women play tonight,’’ followed by four hand clapping emojis, when the third test against India was heading to a rapid conclusion after captain Joe Root had taken a swag of wickets. ‘‘Catch them on @btsportcricket,’’ wrote Hartley, who was part of the BT Sport commentary team.

England’s men were then bowled out for 81 in the second innings and lost by 10 wickets. England opener Rory Burns retweeted it, writing ‘‘Very disappointing attitude considering all the ‘boys’ do to support the women’s game.’’

His tweet was liked by test teammates Ben Stokes and Jimmy Anderson, but far worse was to follow, Hartley told The Guardian.

‘‘I really don’t think I deserve to have people telling me to die [in a hole] and that I’m a really bad role model and women’s sport is rubbish and not worth watching. And I genuinely believe people only jumped on the back of my tweet because I’m a female, which is another issue.’’

Hartley’s incident came soon after rugby reporter Sonja McLaughlan received ‘‘toxic abuse’’ following her interviews after England’s loss to Wales in the Six Nations rugby competition.

Hartley said the threats wouldn’t halt her burgeoning media career, which included covering the T20 and ODI games.

‘‘If you want to give me death threats you’re the one with issues,’’ she told The Guardian.

‘‘I just think they’re sad individuals.’’