West Indies cricketer Daren Sammy revealed earlier this weak that his Sunrisers Hyderabad teammates called him by a name that he has now learned has a racial undertone.
Disappointed with men he called his ‘brothers’, Sammy asked them to get in touch with him and open a conversation. ‘Reach out to me. Let’s have a conversation because if it was in any shape or form what Minhaz meant, I’m very disappointed and I would still be angry and deserve an apology from you guys,’ he said in a 5 minute video he released.
A few days later, he posted another Tweet saying a player had gotten in touch with him adding, ‘My brother reassured me that he operated from a place of love and I believe him’.
After reading of what the former West Indian captain was made to go through in the SRH dressing room back in 2014, and also of his conversation with his teammate, actor Swara Bhasker stepped in and urged the IPL franchise and players to ‘show some decency and spine and say sorry to Daren’.
Swara had also asked Sammy, “if someone used the N word at a black person & said they “operated from a place of love” what would u say? Same with word ‘Kaalu’ & it’s variations”.
To this, the cricketer replied that his motive was to educate individuals and the player calling him and apologising was the beginning of something.
‘Don’t get me wrong I’m not condoning what was done/said. I’m saying let’s use this opportunity to educate each other so it doesn’t happen again. One can only apologize if he/she feels wrong about something. I’m confident & proud to be black. That will never change,’ he Tweeted.
Swara, however, felt there was a need for more to be done. More from the players who called Sammy by the racist term, and more from the team that has now continued to maintain silence despite the allegations, and its proof on Ishant Sharma’s Instagram post from 2014 where he has captioned Sammy by the same name.
A post, that is still untouched on his social media.
‘But it’s important that your teammates own up to their action, even if they didn’t mean it- or didn’t realise- they still played a racist exchange. As you say education- realisation & owning up to one’s actions,’ she replied to Sammy.
Sammy’s latest post in this conversation was just a few hours back and it’s already winning him a lot many new fans, as well as respect.
While Swara wanted his teammates to do the right thing and ‘own up to their actions’, Sammy replied , ‘But that’s not on me to force anyone. It must be on one’s one free will. But I will continue to highlight or educate the need for change.. there’s no place for such in this world.’
The entire conversation and both Swara and Sammy’s views have been applauded by many on social media.
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