Lisa Sthalekar, one of the few players from the Indian origin to have made it big for another country in international cricket, opened up on the experience of "casual racism" during her playing career for Australia. 

Growing up down under, Sthalekar represented the Aussie women side in eight Tests, 125 ODIs and 54 T20Is and even went on to lead the country before retiring and turning to commentary.  

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In an interview with Cricbuzz, the 40-year-old revealed that her initial career wasn't short of instances where she was discriminated. 

"There was one time where... I don't even know the circumstances, but my teammates were trying to pin me down and put a bindi(worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women)on my forehead with a permanent marker (because I was Indian). And I was fighting that off because it pissed me off," said Sthalekar. 

"There's been casual racism within cricket teams regularly growing up. People would say, 'You need to carry the bags, Lisa'... things like that over the years. Obviously, things changed in the environment and what was acceptable changed, but I've had a few incidents that haven't been great." 

"But I think if you're a sportsperson you tend to have a thicker skin because you're constantly getting judged or critiqued or the banter on the field. Maybe that allowed me to cope," she added. 

She didn't let the comments of "carry the bags, Lisa" kind affect her much and tried to fit into that group. 

"No, I'd tell them to f*** off basically. It was a bit of a joke... To be honest, some of the times to cope with it, I said it as well. You try and get in with a joke before the joke is made out of you, so to speak," said Sthalekar, who added that the brush with racism was definitely more severe for her sister, Caprini.

"I know my sister had a lot of issues growing up in Australia. She is from Bangalore and is a lot darker. She was probably the only one within her school that was that dark and wore glasses... she didn't have the luck of the draw in that sense. She had to actually move schools because she was getting bullied, but those things unfortunately happen."

"But both me and my sister have always had an open, honest relationship with our parents. That enabled us to move on and get on with things. Like I said, for me, it wasn't as bad as it was for my sister. Sport covered over things for me that were there for others."

Sthalekar recalled an incident from her school days when she first came face to face with racism. 

"There was probably one incident at school. I would've been in kindergarten and to be honest, I can't remember what some older kid said, but I remember someone next to me complained to the teacher about it. That was probably the first time I had come across racism," she said. 

"I knew it was a racist comment, but for the life of me, I can't remember! But that was the first time. I think for me, because I was okay at sport, the prejudice that may have existed, disappeared because people were happy to have me on their team."

"I always thought... and this is where casual racism comes in, but I always thought I was white and I tanned really well. I never felt different. I felt like an Australian," Sthalekar added. 

"I never felt like I was different to any of my teammates. When it was pointed out to me that I was different, I thought to myself...I don't feel different, I don't act differently, do I?"

(Inputs from Cricbuzz)