Cricket Australia on Wednesday spoke against “blatantly racist and uneducated ” comments directed at cricketer Dan Christian, who recently spoke out about the casual racism he has experienced in Australian cricket.
According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the board has also launched an investigation to identify and potentially sanction the senders of racist abuse towards Christian on social media a day after the all-rounder, who is Aboriginal, appeared on Cricket Australia’s new series Cricket Connecting Country.
“We are deeply disappointed to see blatantly racist and uneducated comments in the aftermath of Cricket Connecting Country’s premiere last night,” Cricket Australia wrote on their Twitter handle on Thursday.
“Whilst we have chosen not to name the publisher of these comments publicly, we want to strongly reinforce that any form of racism or discrimination has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. Comments like these demonstrate just how far we still have to go,” the board further said.
Christian, who represented Australia in 19 ODIs and 16 T20Is, had spoken about the subtle kind of racism that exists in the Australian setup.
“I think it (racism) is an issue in Australian cricket, I don’t think it’s as ‘in your face’ as you might see around the world or even elsewhere in the Australian culture,” he had said on the show on Wednesday.
“I think it’s definitely there, it’s more of casual racism, just little throwaway lines here and there, made to be jokes and a lot of that for me personally has been around the color of my skin and the fact that I don’t look Aboriginal or whatever that means. That’s the most noticeable thing for me,” he added.
