The ongoing Sydney Test between Australia and India has been in news for all the wrong reasons. While the cricket has been amazing on the field, off the field, the behavior of the crowd at the SCG has left a bad taste in the visitors’ mouths.
During the evening session on the third day, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were subjected to racial jibes from the crowd in stands at the SCG and the same thing continued on day four as well.
Siraj had to complain to captain Ajinkya Rahane and the skipper, along with senior player R Ashwin was seen in conversation with umpires. Both the umpires then had a word with each other and the police then asked a group of men to leave the stand.
"Adelaide and Melbourne were not as bad, but like I said this has been a continuous thing in Sydney, I have dealt with it in the past, the fans here tend to get nasty, I do not know why they do it, unless and until it is dealt with, people don't find the necessity to look it in a different way.
I was surprised to see some section of the crowd going on with it and they were not pulled up for it, it was surprising to see, this issue had to be dealt with, disappointing is a very mild word for this issue, I must say," Ashwin said while replying to an ANI query during the virtual press conference.
"I would like to point out something, this is my fourth tour to Australia and Sydney especially here, we have had these type of experiences in the past as well. I think one or two times players have reacted to this in the past and they have gotten into trouble, it is not because of the player, it is because of the way the crowd has been reacting.
The fans have been quite nasty, but this is one occasion where they have gone one step ahead, it is a case of racial abuse, we lodged an official complaint yesterday and we brought it to the notice of the umpires,” Ashwin further elaborated on the issue.
Apparently, the fans in the crowd were calling Mohammed Siraj a monkey and this led to the fast bowler to take the issue up with the captain and the umpires.
Cricket Australia, meanwhile, tendered an apology, and their Head of Integrity and Security, Sean Carroll said, "Cricket Australia condemns in the strongest terms possible all discriminatory behavior. If you engage in racist abuse, you are not welcome in Australian cricket.”
"It is definitely not acceptable in this day and age, we have evolved as a society and this roots to the upbringing, this should be dealt with an iron first, by iron fist I mean the way we deal with it," Ashwin added.
(ANI inputs)
