Want to take this opportunity to educate instead of trying to pinpoint, reveals Darren Sammy
Sammy accused his former SRH teammates of racism
|Darren Sammy has detailed out the reason why he spoke about racism at SRH in his video and stated that cricket needs to have an open conversation regarding the same. Sammy has further added that he didnât know the meaning of the word and thought it meant a stallion and not a reference to his colour.
Darren Sammy took the world by storm in the wake of the BLM Movement all around and stated that he was subjected to racial abuse during his stay at Sunrisers Hyderabad. While he wanted the players to give him a call to speak about it, he took to Twitter last night to reveal that one of the guys gave him a call and they had an open conversation about it, while adding that the guy âoperated from a place of loveâ. Now, he spoke about what triggered the statement.
âIf you listen to my video, you'll understand why now. Like I said I was watching a video by Hasan. In that video I learned that something I was being called had a different meaning, rather degrading meaning to it. So if I'm in the dressing room or I'm speaking to you six years ago, and you're calling me a name or word which I thought had a different meaning to it, why should I bring it up when I was not aware? If you understand what I mean. I've heard BCCI and Sunrisers said there was no complaint. There couldn't be a complaint if you are not aware of what's going on."
âIt's only because I listened to that video (of Minhaj), once he started describing the word being used to describe people of colour from these parts, once he said the word, I instantly remembered. Because it was my nickname for almost two seasons (at Sunrisers). Do you understand? But I did not see it at that time as anything degrading because I thought it meant they were calling me a strong stallion.â
"I thought it meant a stallion. If you notice back in 2014 I sent a Happy Birthday tweet to VVS Laxman. I said: "Happy Birthday to you brother. Hope you have a great day." And I started laughing. And I said, "remember dark kalu." So I was saying: remember the dark stallion. So, imagine (now) you listening six years later and somebody from that culture telling you, "Hey, bro, this word has a degrading meaning to you because of the colour of your skin." Then automatically you want to have a conversation.
After Sammyâs post on Twitter, he revealed, one player called him to say sorry and clarified that he operated from a place of love. Sammy added that having conversations about it would make things smoother for everyone to eradicate racism from cricket.
âOne of the guys (a 2013-14 Sunrisers teammate) has reached out to me and we are having a conversation about it. It's someone I could bet still has a big poster of me and him hung up in his dressing room where I signed it and I said: "Brothers for life." And I still mean that. But it doesn't take away or change the fact that certain words that are being used could come across as degrading because of the colour of your skin. And whether you are my friend or I see you as a brother, we will or we should have the conversation about that.â
âI see this now as a(n) opportunity to educate instead of trying to pinpoint 'this guy is a racist'. No, that's what I'm about. And I clearly stated that, reach out to me, let's discuss. Because I am always about moving forward. Just because it is a tough subject or a tough conversation, I will not shy away. That's not what Daren is,â the two-time T20 World Cup-winning skipper added.
