Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer has revealed how he faced casual racism in England during his time as a Lancashire player. He represented Lancashire from 1968 to 1976.
Farokh Engineer is one of the best wicketkeeper-batsman India has produced. He played 46 Tests for the nation, scoring over 2500 runs to go with 2 centuries and 16 half-centuries.
In an interaction with The Indian Express, former Indian wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer revealed that when he went to play county cricket in England he faced racist comments because he was from India and everyone made fun of his accent.
"When I first came into county cricket, there were question marks like 'he is from India?' I did face it (racist comments) once or twice when I joined Lancashire. Nothing very personal, but just because I was from India. It had to do with making fun of my accent," Farokh Engineer told The Indian Express.
Engineer claimed that his English was better than many Englishmen and they realized that. He added that he gave it back to them and proved himself by performing with both bat and gloves and was proud to represent India.
"I think my English is better than most Englishmen really, so soon they realized that you don’t mess around with Farokh Engineer. They got the message. I gave it back to them straight away. Not only that, I proved myself with my bat and gloves as well. I was simply proud I put India on the map as an ambassador for the country,” he said.
While talking in a recent podcast with comedian Cyrus Broacha, Farokh Engineer said that they all were ‘bloody Indians’ to Englishmen and after the IPL started they changed their tunes.
"We were all ‘bloody Indians’ to them till a few years ago. Now once the IPL started, they are all licking our backsides. It amazes me that just because of the money, they are licking our boots now.
“But people like me know what their true colors were initially. Now they suddenly changed their tunes. India is a good country to go for a few months and do some television work, if not play and make money," Farokh Engineer said in a recent podcast.
(The Indian Express inputs)
