WATCH – Alex Hales clarifies over his viral picture in black face, issues an apology
Alex Hales apologises
English cricket has been hit with another blow as the racism row continues and the latest cricketer to get pulled into the muddle is Alex Hales. A picture of the English cricketer has been doing rounds on social media in which Hales could be seen sporting a black face at what seems to be a party.
The image first surfaced in The Sun newspaper and has acted as fuel for the already roaring fire over the allegations of racism in the English county championships. It all started when Azeem Rafiq, a spinner of Pakistani descent levelled allegations of institutional racism against Yorkshire back in 2008-09.
Alex Hales clears the air around the photo
Following an uproar over the image, Alex Hales have come forward to clear the air. Taking to Instagram, Hales shared a video clarifying the issue. The Englishman shares that the image is from a fancy dress party where he chose to dress as Tupac Shakur, his favourite musician.
“The theme was musicians and Tupac is, was and always will be my favourite musician, so I went as him. I obviously realise that this is incredibly disrespectful and I want to apologise for all the offence this has no doubt caused,” he said. “It was incredibly reckless and foolish on my behalf, so I want to apologise for that, apologise to the club for the embarrassment it would have caused them.”
Hales has been caught in the middle of a storm numerous times in his career for his off-field antics. He goes on to retreat them as he apologised. “I guess my twenties was full of mistakes like that, reckless mistakes off the field that cost me, let down family, let down team-mates, let down friends, close relationships I had during my twenties.“
“Some of those decisions I’ll regret for the rest of my life, and the last few years being away from the spotlight a little bit has given me a chance to try and better myself as a human, keep getting better at cricket, but getting better off the field as well. It’s something I feel like I’ve done, and I’m continuing to strive to do,” he adds.
Alex Hales is currently being investigated by the England and Wales Cricket Board over the “black face” picture. Earlier, Rafiq had alleged that Hales had named his dog Kevin, a word that was used to describe players of Asian origin by a former English cricketer.
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Anshuman Mahapatra
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