ICC strongly condemns racism incidents during AUS vs IND SCG Test; releases official statement

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has strongly condemned reported incidents of racism during the ongoing third Test match between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground and have offered Cricket Australia all necessary support in investigating the incidents.

Team India had lodged an official complaint on Saturday itself after multiple incidents of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah facing racial abuse from the crowd. But the same continued on Sunday as well with Siraj being at the receiving end. He soon complained to the umpires even as the security officials and police got into the action.

The section of supporters, as many as six people, were told to leave the stadium and the incident hasn’t gone down well with the cricketing fraternity as well. ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney re-iterated the ICC’s zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind.

ICC’s statement

“There is no place for discrimination in our sport and we are incredibly disappointed that a small minority of fans may think that this abhorrent behavior is acceptable. We have a comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Policy in place that Members have to abide by and ensure is adhered to by fans and we welcome the action taken by ground authorities and Cricket Australia today.

“We will provide Cricket Australia and the relevant authorities with our full support in any ensuing investigation as we will not tolerate any racism in our sport. Under the ICC Anti-Discrimination policy, Cricket Australia will now be required to investigate the issue and provide a report to the ICC on the incident and any action taken to ensure the issue has been dealt with appropriately.

The Indian cricket team had apprised ICC Match Referee David Boon of alleged racial abuse at the end of the third day’s play. Match and stadium officials were alert on the fourth day and as such play was halted and six people were evicted following another incident just before tea.