Indian ace off-spinner R Ashwin has revealed that he had to deal with racial abuses in the Sydney Cricket Ground in the past. These serious accusations were made by Ashwin against the Australian crowd.
This case resurfaced after Indian cricketers Md. Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were racially abused by the Australian crowds in the ongoing 3rd test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ashwin reported that the Australian crowds were continuously throwing slangs and abuses at him while he was in the field.
The stumps at Day three saw the Indian contingent complaining to the match officials about Siraj and Bumrah getting racially abused on the boundary line. The same instance was repeated on Day 4 too and as many as six men were ejected from the crowd for alleged racial abuse. Further, the whole issue is being investigated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket Australia (CA).
Senior bowler Ashwin also confessed that he suffered with similar issues in the past and he also believes that racist remarks and comments are something that should not be tolerated at any point.
“This is my fourth tour of Australia and in Sydney, we have had a few experiences, even in the past. I think one of the fans, the players have reacted and got into trouble in the past. They have been quite nasty and hurling abuse as well. There is a time where they have gone one step ahead and used racial abuse.
“There was an official complaint lodged yesterday and the umpires said we must bring it to their notice as it happens on the field, and they will be able to take action. It is definitely not acceptable in this day and age. We have seen a lot and evolved as a society. Sometimes I think this roots back to the upbringing and the way one sees. This must definitely be dealt with an iron fist and we must make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Ravi Ashwin stated while speaking to the reporters.
“Personally I think Adelaide and Melbourne wasn’t as bad. But this has been a continual thing at Sydney, I have personally experienced it as well. They do tend to get nasty, I don’t know for what reason. Until it is dealt with people don’t find it necessary to look at it in a different way,” Ashwin said.
“If I take myself back to my first tour in 2011-12, I had no clue about racial abuse and how you can be made to feel small in front of so many people. And the people actually laugh at you when you get abused, I had no idea what this was about.
“When I stood at the boundary line you wanted to stand another 10 yards in to keep yourself away from these things. But as things have stowed on and we have learned more and more, this is definitely not acceptable,” the offs-pinner concluded.
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