Rob Moody, aka Robelinda2, the well-known archivist of cricket footage, was on Tuesday served copyright infringement claims, but amid much public pressure, Cricket Australia stepped in and retracted the claims, stating they “were made in error”.

“This was a crap start to the day,” Moody tweeted on Tuesday. “Got a stack of DMCA takedown removal emails from the legal team from Copyright Integrity International, several of my cricket footage Tweets were removed, and my account was locked. I’ll keep my footage to myself in the future, unfortunately.”

It went on through the morning, as Moody’s prized footage of cricket from yesteryears were blocked on Twitter. “So I’m told to delete every cricket video I’ve ever uploaded to Twitter, over the past 11 years. You have to laugh really! Just suspend my account and be done with it, as if I’m going to go and find all 2000+ videos since 2009 and delete them.”

So I’m told to delete every cricket video I’ve ever uploaded to Twitter, over the past 11 years…..

You have to laugh really! Just suspend my account and be done with it, as if I’m going to go and find all 2000+ videos since 2009 and delete them🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/cdlIVk7u28

— Rob Moody (@robelinda2) June 15, 2020

However, Moody, whose videos have been a particular source of relief for fans starved of cricket during the Covid-19-lockdown over the last few months, found plenty of support in the public, with Aaron Finch, Tom Moody and Jimmy Neesham among the prominent people voicing their support for him.

Eventually, Cricket Australia stated on Twitter that the copyright claims, made by an enforcement company, had been retracted. “Some good news: The copyright claims against @robelinda2 were made in error and have been retracted. The videos should be back up and running soon.

“We’ve got no plans to shut down Rob’s old gold and will follow up on the processes around this.”

Cricket boards: “Why is the game’s popularity waning? What can we do to fix it?”

Also cricket boards: “How dare you upload great footage of old matches that proliferates people’s enjoyment of the game?! Delete it now!” https://t.co/i80ov6pgMe

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) June 16, 2020

Last week, in the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Moody had said he saw this coming. “It’s virtually teetering on the edge of complete obliteration all the time,” he said. “It’s a miracle it’s still up. I’ve tried really hard to stay within the guidelines of … whoever even knows what they are, but the goalposts keep moving as they say.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s always come close. Whenever I’ve got two copyright strikes, I’m only one away. Anyone that’s had a YouTube channel, for any length of time, when you get those copyright strikes, ‘Oh well, it’s gone now’. Anyone can have the channel taken down.

“Early on, it ignored me, but now it’s completely inevitable. Death, taxes and the end of my channel – it’s going to happen at some point! All I can do is keep clearing out the videos that whatever copyright holders say [are] infringing, and keep it up as long as I can.”