5 Times when India cricketers were racially abused

2. Shane Warne draws flak for ‘casual racism’ against Cheteshwar Pujara

This is Pujara’s second appearance on this list. The Test specialist was again at the receiving end of “racism”. During the first Test against Australia in the ongoing tour, the legendary leg spinner Shane Warne referred to Pujara as “Steve”, which is a nickname given to him by his Yorkshire teammates. This might not be intentional, but it was enough to drag Shane Warne into the controversy. 

After this incident, most of the fans on Twitter drew parallels between Harsha Bhogle and Shane Warne, stating that the former was qualified enough to pronounce Marnus Labuschagne’s name, while Warne was not able to pronounce “Cheteshwar”. The matter of Pujara being referred to as “Steve” has gained a lot of controversial attention.

On the 5th of December, former Yorkshire captain Azeem Rafiq had filed a legal complaint against the team for discrimination on the ground of race.  Earlier, Pujara had stated that it was only a nickname given to him by his Yorkshire teammates as they were unable to pronounce his first name.

However, he cleared the air stating that he would prefer “Cheteshwar”. This incident adds up to the list of Indian players who were at the receiving end of racist slurs. Apart from that, this incident throws some light on the way the Asian players are treated in county cricket.