Racism in cricket / Australian controversy - 08/01/2008

Mr Sharad Pawar
President
Board of Control for Cricket in India
6, Janpath
New Delhi - 110001

08 January 2008

Dear Sir,

Racism in cricket / Australian controversy

Much as I wholeheartedly support our team and eagerly await the day when our team turns truly world-beating in all forms of cricket, I must state that in the event that the alleged racist remarks by our team members are proven to be true, strict action is required.

We may hold the world purse strings of cricket but that should not give us the licence to run rough-shod over competitor nation cricket authorities and to ignore the sentiments of the competitor players.

We risk developing a reputation of being sore losers.

Having lived until very recently for 40 years in the UK, I can personally state that being racially abused is very hurtful. As a youngster I was insulted numerous times as a “wog”, “Paki”, “monkey” and much worse, frequently crying at home for hours. Only with the maturity of late adolescence, academic achievement and my family’s relative economic security was I shielded to a major extent from such abuses.

Maybe our cricket administrators and players, in their ivory towers, have been fortunate enough not to be exposed to such discrimination and insults. That is why they possibly fail to understand the gravity of the alleged offences.

There is no space in cricket for racism from any quarter; not from the players, not from the administrators and certainly not from the fans.

How would you feel if our players are subject to racial insults and monkey noises from the crowd next time at The Oval?

More importantly, unless you act strongly now are you not making such an occurrence more likely at English, Australian and Kiwi grounds?

English football had a terrible reputation of racial insults from the crowds in the 1970s when black players started emerging. Racist chants, monkey noises every time a black player controlled the ball, bananas raining in on a black player taking the corner and much more made the playing field living hell from those mainly black players who were unable to emotionally handle these taunts.

The authorities there successfully supported the “KICK OUT RACISM” campaign. So much so that English football crowds are now amongst the best behaved in Europe, with the problem shifting to Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans and Spain.

To think that the Indian team can get away with racial insults is extreme arrogance.

Push the foreign cricketing authorities too far, and then the day will not be too far away when the foreign nations, especially those outside the sub-continent resort to an effective boycott of playing India, as the rest of the world did to South Africa during apartheid.

If the Indian authorities were strong enough to stand up to South Africa in the late 1960 on grounds of racism against blacks and coloureds in that country, surely you can, at this juncture, find the resolve to stand up to your own players, who may need mentoring and coaching on inter-personal skills and the respect for foreign individuals, sensitivities, races and creeds, even if in the current controversy our players are proven to be completely innocent.

Yes, cricket is a passionate game on which ride the hopes and aspirations of millions of Indians, but there has to be a limit.

Act now to ensure that the Indian cricket team has decent competitor nations to play against in the future.

Your personal statement to KICK OUT RACISM from Indian cricket would be welcome, followed by appropriate action.

Kind regards,
Yours faithfully,
Jassi Khangura MLA