Seasoned off-spinner Ashwin Ravichandran on Sunday said racist abuse from the crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground is not new and needs to be dealt with strongly after some spectators were asked to leave the venue for targetting Indian players during the ongoing third Test against Australia.

Speaking at the end of the fourth day’s play, Ashwin said the Indian players have faced racism in Sydney earlier too and that disappointment will be a “mild word” to describe how they are feeling after young pacer Mohammed Siraj was subjected to racial slurs on two consecutive days.

From Virat Kohli to Virender Sehwag: Reactions to racist abuse faced by Indian players in SCG Test

“Look, I would like to point out something. This is my fourth tour to Australia. Sydney, especially here, we have had a few experiences even in the past,” Ashwin said at the virtual press conference.

“One or two times, even the players have reacted and have got into trouble in the past and not because of players but actually the way the crowd has been speaking, especially the lower tier of the stands.”

Local media reported that six people were expelled from the ground by the security during the nearly 10-minute halt in the on-ground proceedings during the fourth day of the ongoing Test. On Saturday, the BCCI lodged a complaint with the ICC after Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were abused.

“They have been quite nasty and have been hurling abuses as well. But this time they have gone one step ahead and used racial abuses,” he added.

Ashwin said that both umpires Paul Reiffel and Paul Wilson have told them to report any incident of racism immediately.

“Like we already mentioned, we have lodged an official complaint yesterday and the umpires also mentioned we must bring it to their notice as and when it happens. It is not acceptable in this day and age when we have seen a lot,” he said.

Ashwin said in no uncertain terms that this needs to be dealt with an iron fist.

“This roots back to upbringing and the way one sees the world, this needs to be definitely dealt with iron fists. We must make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ashwin said that the team didn’t face any racism in the earlier Test venues

“Personally, I think Adelaide and Melbourne weren’t as bad but like I said, this has been a continuous thing at Sydney. I personally experienced it as well. They do tend to get nasty. I don’t know why or for what reason.”

Ashwin was surprised that the security personnel didn’t round up the perpetrators at the first instance and let it linger for a long time.

“Unless people don’t find the necessity to look at it in a different way there won’t be a change. In fact, I was surprised the people sitting around the perpetrators didn’t stop them from doing what they did. They needed to be dealt with and yes, disappointing is actually a very mild word, I must say,” he said

Ashwin then went on to narrate some of his own experiences on previous tours.

“If I take myself back to the first tour of 2011-12, I had no clue about racial abuse and how you were made to feel small in front of so many people and people actually laugh at you and another set of people who laugh along when these things happen. I had no idea at all what this was,” he said.

“When you stood at the boundary line, you wanted to come in 10 yards inside to avoid all these things. As things have moved on and we have toured more and more, this has definitely been unacceptable,” he said.

“So when Siraj brought it up, Ajinkya, Rohit and myself, we all got together and reported the matter to the umpires. Even someone as new as Siraj knows that this is a line someone cannot overstep. We were quite happy that these people were evicted,” said Ashwin.

Watch Ashwin’s press conference here:

(With inputs from PTI)