BCCI have lodged an complaint regarding racism. This comes as a shocker of a news to all the Indian cricket fans and this news has been circulating all across social media. The BCCI on Saturday lodged a complaint with the match officials of the ongoing third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground after Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were allegedly abused with racial jibes on the third day of action. According to The Daily Telegraph, the scenes at the SCG turned sour at the end of play on Saturday with Indian officials accusing members of the crowd of racially abusing both Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah. Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane and vice-captain Rohit Sharma have reported the misdeed to the on-field umpires at stumps after a long discussion with the senior players of the visiting contingent.
BCCI lodged a formal complaint with ICC match referee David Boon about two of their players Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj being abused by a drunk spectator,” a source told PTI. According to the Hindu, the Indian team management has formally lodged the complaint after discussing the issue in detail with match officials and security officials. The issue will now be dealt with by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body of the game which has a no-tolerance policy for racism. While Cheteshwar Pujara evaded a query about it in the post-match interaction about the incident, a BCCI insider confirmed to The Hindu that the discussion was about the alleged racial abuse incident. According to BCCI sources, Siraj was allegedly referred to as a “monkey” by a drunk spectator in one of stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground, reliving the infamous Monkeygate episode of the Indian team’s tour of Australia in 2007-08. Many fans have ha mixed opinions on social media regarding the same. It is too be seen if Cricket Australia issue a statement and come to a clear opinion about this particular incident. This incident reminded all of us about the 2008 Sydney controversy between Australia and India.
Incidentally, the Monkeygate episode also took place during the Sydney Test when Andrew Symonds claimed Harbhajan Singh called him a monkey multiple times. But the Indian off-spinner was cleared after a hearing on the matter.