Ajinkya Rahane opens up on racist comments during Sydney Test

Ajinkya Rahane opened up about the racist comments made by the crowd during the Sydney Test last year.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai to launch the documentary Bandon Mein Tha Dum, Rahane said that they insisted on getting the abusers out of the ground.

“[We] insisted on getting the abusers out of the ground,” Ajinkya Rahane, India’s captain then in the absence of Virat Kohli, said.

During the Sydney Test’s third day, India was on the receiving end of the abuse from the crowd. They did speak to the match officials right after the end of the day but when the abuses continued the next day morning, the Indians alerted the umpires and the play for suspended for minutes. Indians went back to play only after the group of abusers were removed from the crowd.

Rahane revealed that both Paul Reiffell and Paul Wilson asked the players to go back to the dressing room if they didn’t want to play but the team insisted on getting the spectators out.

“When Siraj again came to me [on the fourth day, after being abused the day before], I told the umpires that [they] need to take action and we won’t play till then,” Rahane said.

“The umpires said that you can’t stall the game and can walk out if you want. We said that we are here to play and not sit in the dressing room and insisted on getting the abusers out of the ground”.

Rahane added that it was important for the team to support their teammate and pointed out how wrong it was.

However, the spectators were cleared of any wrongdoing by Cricket Australia.

Indian all-rounder Ashwin, who played an outstanding knock in that Test, said earlier that he also had experienced it.

“Personally I think Adelaide and Melbourne weren’t as bad. But this has been a continuous thing in Sydney. I have experienced it as well. They do tend to get nasty,” Ashwin said.

Recently during the event on Wednesday, Ashwin said that racism happens all over the world.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with a particular section of people in a particular country. Everywhere people do believe that they belong to a majority sort of a thing and they will have their way. And I think racism is one tip of it, where people believe that is a way of differentiation with someone. The only solution is better parenting and better awareness.

“Yes, it happened at that ground [SCG] and at that place [Australia] a lot more. But it was courageous of him [Siraj] to bring it up so at least a wider section of people know and the people sitting next to such people on the ground do better next time.

“It is something one must condemn. But I want to bring it up that everywhere people are differentiating people on different grounds, which is not right.”