The death of African-American after a white policeman knelt on his neck caused of a global furore and athletes (primarily of black origin) came out in numbers to raise their voice against racism based on the colour of the skin.
#BlackLivesMatter trended for days as people from all walks of the lives shared their stories and revealed the moments when they were subjugated to racist slurs and insults.
Cricketers also joined the moment and started speaking up. Chris Gayle wrote he has faced racism within the team setups also but it was Darren Sammy’s claim which shook the cricketing world the most. In an Instagram post Sammy, who used to represent Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL, said that people called him ‘kalu’ and he never knew what it meant.
Two former SRH players were asked about the sensational claims made by Darren Sammy and their response showed they don’t agree much with the lanky West Indian.
“If something like that would have happened then it would have come to notice or a team discussion would have happened on the topic. I am not aware of any such incident and he (Sammy) has to take responsibility for his comments,” Irfan Pathan told Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir spinner Parvez Rasool told that SRH had a very healthy team environment and Darren Sammy used to be in a jovial mood during his time with the team
“I never noticed anything like this. Sammy was my captain for one match during the season but he never told me anything like that.”
“As a team, we had a very healthy environment and were a happy bunch of cricketers. Whenever I spoke to him he seemed very jovial and I enojyed my time with him,” Rasool said.
