At a time when the world is mourning the killing of Afro-American man by a white police officer in USA, former West Indies captain Daren Sammy made shocking revelations about racism in cricket.
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On Saturday (June 6), Sammy alleged that he and Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera faced racist jibe while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In his Instagram story, Sammy, who represented SRH in 2013 and 2014, said he and Perera were called "kalu" when they were part of the franchise.
Notably, Kalu is a Hindi word and the literal meaning of it is a “black person” in English.
However, his former Sunrisers teammates Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan and Venugopal Rao have rubbished such claims.
“I don’t think I have heard anyone using those (derogatory) words,” Parthiv, who was with SRH in 2013, told The Telegraph.
“I’m not very sure… Not aware of it,” Venugopal, who joined Sunrisers in 2014, said.
While refuting Sammy’s claim, Pathan did admit that such incidents weren't uncommon in domestic cricket.
“I was there with him (Sammy) in 2014. I feel had this really happened, the matter would definitely have been discussed. So I’m not aware of such things as nothing was discussed in a larger way.
“But at the same time, we need to educate our people because I’ve seen them (racial jibes) in domestic cricket.
“Some of our cricketers from the south, especially, have faced that in the northern and western parts of the country, though I don’t want to name anyone.
“What happens is among the crowd, someone tries to act like a jester. It’s not because people are racist, but it’s like someone trying to be popular by saying something seemingly funny that amounts to crossing the line on certain occasions,” Irfan said.
The BCCI hasn’t received any such complaint in the history of IPL and a board official said, “Sammy should have reported at that time if he had any complaints.”
“If he wants he can still lodge a formal complaint with the specifics and the Board can investigate if needed,” the official added.
