THE END OF ME: Darren Sammy lamentably announces her son Darren Sammy jr. passing this morning.
The IPL hasn’t been played so far this year. But the tournament stayed in the news when Daren Sammy of the West Indies said that he and Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera, members of the Hyderabad franchise, were called by the racist nickname ‘Kalu’ by some teammates in 2013.
Sammy brushed off the matter after a teammate assured him the name came out of “a place of love”. And Sunrisers Hyderabad did not answer ETPanache’s questions on the subject. But with the world going through testing times and the need for prudence even greater now, Sammy’s experience could not be ignored. Moreover, a Rajasthan Royals player was also subjected to a racist comment a few days ago. Even Shikhar Dhawan’s six-year-old son Zoraver wasn’t spared by trolls. As a result, some teams are responding strongly against racist behaviour or comments.
A Rajasthan Royals spokesperson said, “We took a stand against the racist comment by responding on Twitter saying, ‘We spotted a highly objectionable and disturbing tweet directing racist abuse towards our player in a reply to one of our tweets yesterday. We reported and blocked the individual immediately. Diversity is integral to Rajasthan Royals. Racism will NOT be tolerated’.”
