Former Windies captain Darren Sammy’s recent revelations about being racially discriminated in the IPL have caused a stir in the cricket fraternity. On Saturday, the two-time World T20 winning skipper took to his Instagram where he conveyed his anger on realizing that the Hindi word ‘Kalu’ had offensive racial implications.
Sammy followed up his story on Sunday, when he anonymously alleged certain ex-SRH teammates for frequently using that word to call him. He claimed that, at the time; he and his Sri Lankan teammate Thisara Perera had misunderstood the derogatory term as a compliment. But now that he is aware of its true implications, Sammy wants those people to reach out to him and explain their behavior.
“I don’t want to point out names yet, the people know who they are”- Darren Sammy
Sammy posted a video over on his Instagram account on Monday urging the said-teammates to privately reach out to him. “Knowledge is power,” his caption read. “So recently I discovered a word that some of my friends used on me didn’t mean what I thought it meant. I need answers. I don’t want to start calling out names. So I’m hoping that these individuals can reach out and tell me what they meant. Because now I know that there is another meaning to that word. I want to know that they used that name on me in love, and had no prejudice in their hearts.”
Sammy made some rather interesting quotes in the video that he uploaded. ‘I recently heard Hasan Minhaj describing what that word means. What I found quite upset me- I didn’t know that the word had such heinous, degrading implications.
Instantly, I remembered that back when I played for the SRH in 2013 and 2014 IPL, some of the guys used that exact same word to call me. Not just me, but there was also Thisara Perera from Sri Lanka. What is sad, is that, anytime someone used that word, people around me used to laugh and cheer. I had thought, ‘hey, teammates are happy. It must be something funny’. Someone had even told me that the word meant a strong black stallion, so I was fine with the term.
“If you meant it in a derogatory way, you need to apologize”
But given what has happened over the past few weeks, the issue really frustrates me. Racial discrimination is no joke. I will be messaging those people – you guys know who you are. I want to know, that when you repeatedly called me that word over and over again to the point when I had to ask if it was some nickname. Did you mean it in a degrading way, or lovingly?
I am always up for fun and team building- but that cannot come at the expense of a person’s image degradation. All those who called me that, you guys know yourself. Some of you have my numbers, my Instagram and Twitter. Let’s have a conversation. If it was in the way Minhaj meant, you ought to fess up. I’m angry and I deserve an apology. Talk to me, reach out to me.’
Some of Sammy’s SRH teammates like Irfan Pathan and Parthiv Patel have, meanwhile, denied being aware of any such situation. It’d be interesting to see if the SRH management or the accused players do come up with some statements.