Racist slur? Sammy seeks answers from ex-SRH mates
NEWDELHI: An old Instagram post from India pacer Ishant Sharma resurfaced on Tuesday and confirmed West Indies’ World T20winning captain Darren Sammy’s allegations that he was called ‘kalu’— a derogatory term to describe people of dark complexion—by teammates at the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.
In the photo dated May 14, 2014, Sharma can be seen with his then SRH teammates Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sammy and Dale Steyn. The caption reads ‘Me, bhuvi, kaluu and gun sunrisers,’ with ‘kaluu’ referring to Sammy and ‘gun’ to South Africa pacer Steyn.
Hours before the post went viral, Sammy released a video in which he expressed displeasure at the word used by SRH teammates, even if it was only for fun.
“I was listening to Hasan Minhaj (Indian-American comedian and actor) talking about how some of the people in his culture view or describe black people,” Sammy said in an Instagram post on Tuesday. “...I was angry after listening to him describing a word that they use to describe black people, which he was saying is not in a good way and it was degrading. Instantly I remembered when I played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 and 2014, I was being called the exact same word that he described.”
Sammy’s video was posted along with a message in which he threatened to call out the players if they did not come up with an explanation. “Knowledge is power. So recently I discovered a word that I was being called was not what it actually meant, I need some answers. So before I start calling out names I need these individuals to reach out and please tell me there’s another meaning to that word and when I was being called it, it was all in love,” the post said.
In 2014, even Sammy called himself ‘Kalu’ in a social media post to offer birthday wishes to VVS Laxman—the SRH mentor at the time. “But, every time I was called it (kalu)—it was me and Thisara Perera—there was always laughter. Me being a team man, I thought, hey, teammates are happy, it must be something funny. You can understand my frustration and my anger when it was pointed out to me that it wasn’t funny at all, it was degrading,” he said. “So, I’m going to be texting you guys, and asking you guys, when you repeatedly called me that word over and over again to the point that I was even saying that’s my name, did you all mean it in any way, shape or form as a degrading word to me.”
Sammy demanded an apology from his teammates. “All those who used to call me that, you guys know yourselves... Reach out to me, let’s have a conversation. Because, if it was in any way, shape or form what Minhaj said it meant, I’m very disappointed.”
“You guys know who you are. I must admit, at the time in which I was being called that, I did not know what it meant. I thought it meant strong stallion or whatever it is, and I saw no problems with it because I was ignorant, I thought it meant something else, something uplifting.”
While commenting on the protests over African-American George Floyd’s death in the US last week, Sammy spoke about being called ‘kalu’ in India. This is the first time he revealed that it was his SRH teammates who called him that. SRH have not yet released a statement on the allegations and Sharma did not answer to calls or text messages sent to him seeking a response.