Picture Credit: Twitter/@englandccricket
Cricket fans would not have forgotten the controversies that happened during India's tour of Australia in 2020-21. While the on-field cricket action was of top quality, the unfortunate incident of racism in which Mohammed Siraj and other few Indian cricketers were called names put the sport in a bad light. Meanwhile, even the spectators who were involved in this incident were punished and now a similar incident has unfolded during India's ongoing tour of England.
While England prides itself on its cricket and its attitude towards its opponents, the incident which happened during the first Test between England and India in Nottingham does not do justice to this reputation. The racism incident was revealed by a British Indian female.
The fan took to share the incident on Reddit and disclosed how English fans were constantly abusing Indian cricketers. While Mohammed Shami was being called "Sh**ty Shami," captain Virat Kohli was referred to as "wanker Kohli" as he lost the DRS. They also reportedly called the visiting team players lazy and cheaters, as per the fan.
Fans were told "Go back to India", chants of "Delta"
The fan also said that during the constant derogatory remarks and usage of objectionable language when one of the ladies asked the English fans to stop, she was questioned of her nationality. On being intervened by the female fan who brought the incident to light, the English fans asked her to "Go back to India."
She quickly reported the incident to the steward and said that the ground officials did take prompt action against the offenders by removing the particular man from the ground who had told the 31-year-old lady to go back to India. While the lady and her family were then moved to the stand where more Indian fans were present, a small section of English fans again took a dig as they kept chanting ‘Delta’ in relation to the COVID-19 variant which was previously termed the "Indian variant."
The horror incident comes as a big setback for England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as their efforts have been to create awareness about racism and their players also took a knee staring from the series against the West Indies when cricket resumed after the COVID-19 break.
