The International Cricket Council (ICC) has taken note of the serious racial abuse incident of Indian players Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah during the ongoing third Test between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), Sydney.

Siraj and Bumrah had complained of being abused by a section of the crowd in the stands late on day 3 and Cricket Australia took note of the complaint.

The Indian cricket team had apprised ICC Match Referee David Boon of alleged racial abuse at the end of the third day’s play.

AUS v IND 2020-21: Cricket Australia launches its own enquiry in racial abuse of Indian players

Match and stadium officials were alert on the fourth day and as such play was halted and six people were evicted following another incident just before tea after Siraj being allegedly called a ‘brown dog’, which led to stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane and Siraj having a long talk with the two on-field umpires.

Meanwhile, ICC strongly condemned reported incidents of racism and has offered Cricket Australia all necessary support in investigating the incidents.

“There is no place for discrimination in our sport and we are incredibly disappointed that a small minority of fans may think that this abhorrent behavior is acceptable. We have a comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Policy in place that Members have to abide by and ensure is adhered to by fans and we welcome the action taken by ground authorities and Cricket Australia today.

“We will provide Cricket Australia and the relevant authorities with our full support in any ensuing investigation as we will not tolerate any racism in our sport,” ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said in a statement.  

As per the ICC Anti-Discrimination policy, Cricket Australia will now be mandated to investigate the issue and deliver a report to the ICC on the incident and any action taken to ensure the issue has been dealt with appropriately.

(ICC inputs)