DUBAI: India captain Virat Kohli lashed out on Saturday at the “spineless people” who abused bowler Mohammed Shami online after his side’s defeat in their Twenty20 World Cup opener against Pakistan last weekend. “There’s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person,” Kohli told reporters. The India team as well as the Board of Control for Cricket in India had stayed silent after the incident. However, several former Indian players decried the abuse. Shami, who is Muslim, was the victim of online abuse including Islamophobic messages. “Attacking someone over their religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that a human being can do,” Kohli said. “I don’t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people, and neither does Shami, neither does anyone else in the team.” The 32-year-old said that online abuse had become a “source of entertainment in today’s world” and that he was confident the episode would not mar the dressing room atmosphere.