Chris Gayle, West Indies Opening Batsman who put his weight behind former captain Darren Sammy has won two T20 World Cups in years 2012 and 2016, playing under the leadership of Sammy said, “it’s never too late for the right cause,” as Sammy alleged racial comments while representing Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.
Gayle, who has been an integral part of IPL representing franchise like Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Kings XI Punjab, tweeted, “it’s never too late to ought for the right cause or what you’ve experienced over the years! So much more to your story, Darren Sammy, like I said, it’s in the game.”
Since George Floyd was killed in the USA, an African-American man, giving rise to the Black Lives Matter campaign, both Sammy and Gayle have been Vocal.
Also Read: Cricketers support Ganguly to become next ICC president
But, while playing in the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Sammy stunned the cricket world when he revealed of being called by a derogatory name.
Firstly, on Monday, the former all-rounder who represented SRH in 2013 and 2014 seasons of IPL, released a video and posted an Instagram story in which he tried to comfort the ones who were behind the remarks.
In an Instagram video, which Sammy posted on his account said, “I have played all over the world and I have been loved by many people, I have been embarrassed in all dressing rooms where I have played, so I was listening to Hasan Minhaj as to how some of the people in his culture describe black people.”
Also Read: Jinx Turns 32, Here’s how cricket fraternity wished him
He added, “This does not apply to all people, so after I found out a meaning of certain word, I had said I was angry on finding out the meaning and it was degrading, instantly I remembered when I played for Sunrisers Hyderabad, I was being called exactly the same word which is degrading to us black people.”
Sammy told, his teammates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name, and he didn’t know the meaning at that time when he was being called by that name.
Sammy said, “I will be messaging those people, you guys know you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called by that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny.”
On May 14, 2014, one of them could be Ishant, who shared a group picture also featuring Sammy, using ‘Kaluu’ to identity the West Indian in it. Even Sammy called himself ‘kaluu’ the same year in a social media post to offer birthday wishes to the SRH mentor VVS Laxman.
Also Read: Virat Kohli in the list of highest-earning sportsperson during lockdown
