Earlier this week, West Indies’ Darren Sammy shocked the cricketing world by talking about the racism he faced during his stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. In an interview by ESPNcricinfo on Friday, Sammy spoke about why he decided to open up six years after the incident.
On Tuesday, Sammy shared a video on Instagram where he spoke about being called ‘k***u’ by his SRH teammates during the 2013 and 2014 seasons of the IPL. The all-rounder said he recently found out the meaning of that word and has been upset ever since.
“I instantly got very angry about it knowing what that word meant. I will be messaging those people. You guys know who you are,” he said in the video.
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Sammy has now said that one of his teammates from that SRH squad has reached out to him to clear things out. Without naming that player, Sammy said he is keen to move forward.
“One of the players did reach out to me. We are having a conversation about it. It’s someone I could bet still has a big poster of me and him hung up in his dressing room where I signed it and I said: “Brothers for life.” And I still mean that,” said Sammy.
“And I’ve spoken to Tom Moody, the coach of that team. You have to look at the bigger picture. I always look for the positive that will come out of something. I think now with everything that is happening around the world it’s an opportunity to educate.”
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Sammy, however, said that the player who reached out to him didn’t offer an apology.
The 36-year-old said that it doesn’t matter if someone said sorry to him as long as he can shed light on this important topic of racism and help educate people.
“Let me make this clear. You see this beautiful chocolate man you see here, I’m very comfortable in my skin. I refuse to allow any other person to make me mentally feel less than who I am. I am very proud of the skin that I am in. So whether I get an apology or not, it doesn’t change the mentality of how proud I am to be a black person, to be a black man. It doesn’t change,” he said.
Sammy has been vocal in the fight against racism ever since African-American George Floyd was killed by white police officers two weeks ago. The all-rounder had asked the International Cricket Council to speak up on social justice with a series of posts on social media.