As former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy alleged racism during his stint with SunRisers Hyderabad in the 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL), netizens have dug up the old Instagram post of Ishant Sharma, where the objectionable word has been used in the caption. Last week, Sammy had lost his cool as he learnt the meng of the word Kalu (means Black), a jibe which was directed at him during his Indian Premier League (IPL) stint with SunRisers Hyderabad.
The former Windies T20 World Cup-winning skipper had said that he along with Sri Lanka player Thisara Perera were subjected to 'Kalu' chants when they played for SunRisers Hyderabad. Now, netizens have dug out Ishant's post from 2014 where he posted a photo along with Darren Sammy, Dale Steyn, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The post is captioned as: "Me, bhuvi, kaluu and gun sunrisers".Ishant and Sammy were part of the SunRisers Hyderabad team during the 2014 IPL.
However, when Irfan Pathan was asked about Sammy's allegations, he told : "If there was something like that, it would have come under our notice, there was no team discussion as such during 2014 IPL, we are not aware of that". Earlier today, Sammy had released a video specifying that the racial slurs were used within the SunRisers camp. "I have played all over the world and I have been loved by many people, I have embraced all dressing rooms where I have played, so I was listening to Hasan Minhaj as to how some of the people in his culture describe black people," Sammy said in a video posted on his Instagram account."This does not apply to all people, so after I found out a meng of a certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meng and it was degrading, instantly I remembered when I played for SunRisers Hyderabad, I was being called exactly the same word which is degrading to us black people," he added.
Sammy said that at the time when he was being called with the word, he didn't know the meng, and his team-mates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name."I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called as that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny," Sammy said.
"Now, I realise it was degrading, I will be texting you guys and I will ask you as to when you called me with that name, did you all mean it in any bad way or form? I have had great memories in all my dressing rooms, so all those who used to you call me with that word, think about it, let's have a conversation, if it was in a bad way then I would be really disappointed," he added.
The former Windies skipper has been a vocal supporter of the protests that are currently going on in the United States over the death of an African-American man named George Floyd.Sammy had also made an appeal to the ICC and other cricket boards to support the fight against social injustice and racism. Opening batsman Chris Gayle had also condoled the demise of Floyd and had said that he too has been a victim of racism. Ever since the demise of Floyd, protests erupted from the demonstrations in cities from San Francisco to Boston.
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( With inputs from ANI )
