Thursday, October 18, 2007

There is no place for racism in life

An excellent tour of Australia in India for 7 ODI games has come to an end.

The tour will go down in the annals of Indian cricket with a black spot where a talented member of the guest team was subjected to racist comments by the Indian audiences at more than one venue.

After the Vadodara game Andrew Symonds had reported against racist abuse from the audience. The matter was viewed seriously by the ICC, the Indian board and the Australian board. Sharad Pawar and Creagh O'Connor presidents of BCCI and Cricket Australia respectively even issued a joint statement that there was no place for racism in cricket just before the match at Mumbai.

Unfortunately, the incident was repeated at Mumbai on 17th October during the last ODI of the series. A photographer captured certain spectators enacting monkey chants on camera.

I agree with Ricky Ponting that there are many people in the country who find the incident embarassing. It is shameful that such behaviour has been witnessed in India, a country that takes pride for its secularism.

I can only hope and pray that such incidents are not repeated. Not only on the cricket ground but nowhere. There is no place for racism in life.

No comments: