File photo of Mohammed Siraj
Racism remains one of the biggest problems in sport. Time and time again, incidents of players being mistreated on the field have been reported, be it in football, cricket or other sports. Indian pacemaker Mohammed Siraj also fell victim to racism during the 2021 Sydney Test while touring Australia. More than two years since the incident, Siraj has opened up the dark episode of his career, revealing that he was called a ‘black monkey’ by some of the Australian supporters at the stadium.
“When I was called a black monkey in Australia and stuff like that, I ignored them on the first day, thinking people were drunk. But when it happened on the second day, I decided to go to the umpires and complain about racism.” and I transferred it to Ajju bhai (Ajinkya Rahane) who went to the referees,” Siraj said during a speech on RCB season 2 podcast.
In that match it was Ajinkya Rahan who captained the Indian team as Virat Kohli had returned home after the first Test in Adelaide. Rahane took the matter up with the on-field umpires and got those fans out of the venue.
“So the umpires told him you are free to leave the ground until the matter is resolved. But Ajju bhai said, ‘We respect cricket and why should we leave the ground? We focused on cricket at the time because people already have these things would keep saying,” added Siraj.
Siraj and all the Indian team had a memorable tour of Australia in that series where they lifted the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1.
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