Racism Has No Place In Sports
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-01-12 07:31:40
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
Some people in the crowd in Sydney showed the ugly face of Australia to the world by hurling racist abuses at Indian players (although to be fair, such racists exist in all countries). The whiteness of their skin does not give them the right to call others "brown dogs". The matter is simple: there is no space in stadiums across the world for people who bring racial or other abuse into play. The spectators are allowed inside stadiums to watch the game and not display their prejudices. The players are sportsmen who represent their country (or state or any other team) and perform to the best of their ability to let the people enjoy the game. They do not deserve to be abused by such fanatics.
Cricket Australia and match referee David Boon need to be congratulated for the efficient manner in which they handled the situation, apologized to the Indian team and used the CCTV footage to identify the miscreants and had them thrown out of the stadium. This will send out a signal that such abusive and unruly behavior will not be tolerated in sport stadiums.
But, as sports correspondent Boria Majumdar has written in The Times of India, just throwing out the fans will achieve little as they will do the same given an opportunity. He has pointed out that the New South Wales (Sydney is part of the province) laws provide for prosecution for racially abusing another individual in public. Hence, since we do not know whether those evicted in Sydney were booked, just the eviction was no punishment for them. They should be punished as per the laws of NSW.
Authorities all over the world must deal with such situations with an iron hand and prosecute offenders as per the law of the land. These people must be made to realize that their prejudices based on race have no place in today's world. The human race is already divided along many lines but is united when it comes to sports with people of all countries participating and excelling in all sports disciplines. It should remain that way.
