Former West Indies captain Darren Sammy on Monday took to Instagram to address the issue of racism in the Indian Premier League when he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad, alleging that he was subject to a racial slur, the meaning of which he came to know recently. He said he will be getting in touch with the people who called him by the derogatory term.
“I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called 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 that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought my teammates are laughing so it must be something funny,” he said in an IGTV clip posted on his Instagram account.
“Knowledge is power,” he wrote along with the video. “So recently I discovered a word that I was being called was not what it actually meant I need some answers. So before I start calling out names I need these individuals to reach out and please tell me there’s another meaning to that word and when I was being called it, it was all in love.”
Earlier, Sammy had alleged that during his stint with SRH, in 2013 and 2014, he and Sri Lankan cricketer Thisara Perera were called ‘kalu’, which he had thought meant “a strong black man or stallion”. However, in a recent episode of The Patriot Act, host Hasan Minhaj called out Indians for using the term to refer to black people in a derogatory way.
“I was listening to Hasan Minhaj as to how some of the people in his culture describe black people… After I found out the meaning of a certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meaning 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 said.
The T20 World Cup winning captain had taken to social media to express his anguish at being subjected to such derogatory remarks, just days after urging the International Cricket Council of taking a stand against racism in the wake of the killing of African American George Floyd and the protests that followed.
“I have had great memories in all my dressing rooms, so all those who used to call me that word, think about it, let’s have a conversation, if it was in a bad way then I would be really disappointed,” Sammy added.
Sammy’s teammate and West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle had also raised his concerns over the racism prevalent in cricket and had posted on social media about the same.
Former Sunrisers Hyderabad cricketers, who played alongside Sammy, however, have denied knowledge of such incidents. Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan said they were not aware of it.
