Amid repetitive episodes of racial abuse being hurled at pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj during the ongoing Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), the Indian team clearly looked displeased and decided to confront the perpetrators by alerting the match officials.
Coach Ravi Shastri clearly looked unhappy and was seen discussing the situation animatedly with the team’s security official in Sydney, possibly talking about the lapses that have exposed the players to such racial outbursts from fans.
Earlier on the third day, Indian team management, including Ravichandran Ashwin, was seen notifying the umpires after the end of the day’s play and the off-spinner made no bones about how pathetic the team is feeling after these episodes.
Ashwin did not shy away from his past experiences of playing in Australia where crowds have been unruly, but he pointed out that the spectators crossed the line this time, and hence the team management decided to take a stand for the players.
"Look, I would like to point out something. This is my fourth tour to Australia. Sydney, especially here, we have had a few experiences even in the past. They have been quite nasty and have been hurling abuses as well. But this is the time when they have gone one step ahead and used racial abuses. Like we already mentioned, we have lodged an official complaint yesterday and umpires also mentioned (that) we must bring it to their notice as and when it happens. It is not acceptable in this day and age when we have seen a lot,” Ashwin said at the virtual press conference after the end of the fourth day’s play in Sydney.
Ashwin said that the crowds in Adelaide and Melbourne, where India have played a lot of Test matches on the previous tours, have not been nasty like the crowds at the SCG where he personally decided to be 10 yards inside the boundary line to avoid such comments affecting him. But Ashwin says that enough has been endured and that the Indian team wants to confront these challenges and hence, when Siraj brought the matter to Rahane, all, including him, Rohit Sharma, and captain Rahane, decided to bring umpires Paul Wilson and Paul Rieffel into the process of combatting it.
“If I take myself back to the first tour of 2011-12, I had no clue about racial abuse and how you were made to feel small in front of so many people and people actually laugh at you and another set of people who laugh along when these things happen. I had no idea at all what this was. When you stood at the boundary line, you wanted to come in 10 yards inside to avoid all these things.
“As things have moved on and we have toured more and more, this has definitely been not acceptable. So when Siraj brought it up, Ajinkya, Rohit, and myself, we all got together and reported the matter to the umpires. A new boy like Siraj knows, this is a line someone cannot over-step. We were quite happy that these people were evicted," the off-spinner added.
Ashwin said that at the end of the day it all depends on one’s upbringing and that compels them to do such things and that administrators need to adopt far stricter ways of dealing with the menace of racial abuse at cricket grounds. He also added his surprise at the length of time the people hurling abuses were allowed to sit at the ground unscathed.
“This roots back to upbringing and the way one sees. This needs to be definitely dealt with iron fists. We must make sure it doesn't happen again. Unless people don't find the necessity to look at it in a different way. In fact, I was surprised that a section in crowd continuously did and they were not made to surround or pulled up for it,” Ashwin added.
These episodes of racism at the SCG made many former Australian cricketers angry about how these events portray the atmosphere at grounds in the country while many former Indian cricketers chose harsh words for such people whom they suggested should stay away from the game if they value their behaviour more than the health of the game.
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