IND vs AUS | Sydney crowds have always been abusive but this time they crossed the line, claims R Ashwin

What was one of the best Border-Gavaskar Trophy series’ in recent times turned into a stained and disgraced one on Saturday, as it emerged that multiple Indian players, notably Mohammad Siraj, was subject to racial abuse from a section of fans at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Indian team immediately launched an official complaint post stumps on Day 3, but there was tension once again on Day 4 as play was halted temporarily prior to Tea due to Siraj once again alerting the officials about crowd abuse. Six members were evicted from the stands, but the incident has become a hot topic of discussion since. 

“And I think one or two times even the players have reacted and got into trouble - it is because of the crowd, especially the people in the lower tier of the stands. They have been quite nasty, they have been hurling abuses as well. But this is the time where they went one step ahead and used racial abuses.”

“If I take myself back to the first tour I came here in 2011/12, I had no clue about what racial abuse was, or how you can be made to feel small in front of so many people. And how there are another set of people who laugh along when these things happen (when you get abused). Whenever you stood at the boundary line, you wanted to move another 10 yards to evade these things. 

“But as things have strode on and we’ve learnt more and more, this is definitely not acceptable. Even yesterday when Siraj brought it up, Ajinkya, myself and the others got together and reported it to the umpires. Nowadays the boys are better equipped (in understanding the nature of abuse). Even someone like Siraj, who is new, he knows that there is a certain line someone cannot overstep. It must be met the way it was met.”

“It is definitely not acceptable in this day and age. We’ve evolved as a society. Sometimes I feel this roots back to the upbringing and the way one sees (the others). I definitely feel this must be dealt with an iron fist and we must make sure that this doesn't happen again.

“Personally I think Adelaide and Melbourne wasn’t as bad. But like I said this has been a continual thing in Sydney, I’ve personally experienced it as well. They do tend to get nasty - I don’t know why or for what reason. Unless and until it is dealt with, people don’t find the necessity to look at it in a different way. In fact I was surprised that some sections of the crowd continuously did it and they were not surrounded or pulled; that was quite surprising as well. It definitely had to be dealt with.”

“The pitch has been quite slow and it has been good to bat. In fact, the balls that we saw misbehave yesterday - the ones which went up and down - have also kinda come down because of the slow nature of the pitch, and I also think the roller is playing its role. The game started off not seeing a lot of sun but as the sun is belting down, the wicket is actually getting better to bat. As a team that is behind in the game, we are very hopeful that we can put together a good performance in the first session.”