Since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the whole world is burning and is calling for an end to racism. The cricketers have also come out in the open and advocated for a discrimination-free world. In the wake of it, veteran all-rounder Darren Sammy has ignited the debate citing he and Thisara Perera were subjected to racist remarks while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.

The former West Indies skipper alleged that he was subject to racism as many of his teammates called him and Thisara Perera ‘Kalu’. It is a Hindi word which means a black person. Sammy initially thought it meant strong. Thus, he had no problem while the teammates used racial slurs against him.

Ishant Sharma called Darren Sammy Kalu

“Oh so that’s what that meant when they called me and Thisara Perera Kalu in India when we played for Sunrisers. I just thought they were calling me strong black man… I’m more piss now,” he wrote in an Instagram story.

Meanwhile, in a recent video, Darren Sammy asked for a clarification of the comments from the teammates. Otherwise, he has threatened to call out the names of the cricketers in public. He has taken a strong stand on the ongoing ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. Sammy along with Jofra Archer, Chris Gayle have urged athletes to speak up against racism.

While former Sunrisers Hyderabad teammates Parthiv Patel, Venugopal Rao, Irfan Pathan has admitted that they were unaware of such remarks, an old photo of Ishant Sharma shows they referred Darren Sammy as ‘Kalu’. Along with Ishant and Sammy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Dale Steyn were also present in the picture.

“Me, bhuvi, kaluu and gun sunrisers,” Ishant Sharma captioned the photo. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/n-9FXeGjXV/