Hyderabad: The ugly face of racial abuse reared its head again. For the second consecutive day of the third cricket Test between Indian and Australia, the Indian players, particularly Hyderabad fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, had to face racial abuse from the crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday.
This time around, however, it kicked up a storm with Indian captain Virat Kohli coming out strongly against the incident. “Racial abuse is absolutely unacceptable. Having gone through many incidents of really pathetic things said on the boundary Iines, this is the absolute peak of rowdy behaviour. It’s sad to see this happen on the field,’’ he said in a tweet.
Kohli went on to say: “The incident needs to be looked at with absolute urgency and seriousness and strict action against the offenders should set things straight for once.”
Siraj and Bumrah had complained of racial abuse from the crowd on Saturday and again on Sunday, the Hyderabad fast bowler was abused racially by a section of the crowd while he was charging to field the ball at fine leg.
Siraj immediately complained to the umpires and play was stopped for more than eight minutes. The umpires, with the help of security guards, evicted six people from the stadium. The Indian cricket team had apprised ICC Match Referee David Boon of alleged racial abuse at the end of the third day’s play. Match and stadium officials were alert on the fourth day and as such, play was halted and six spectators were evicted following the incident just before tea, said the International Cricket Council (ICC) in a statement.
Meanwhile, security has been tightened in the stadium following the back-to-back incidents.
Also read:
Bumrah and Siraj allegedly abused racially, BCCI lodges complaint
No place for discrimination in our sport: ICC
Sydney crowd crossed line with racism: Ashwin
No place for this rubbish: VVS Laxman slams SCG crowd racial abuse
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