Picture Credit: X
A viral video has emerged on the social media platform X wherein the Australian crowd are seemingly making racist chants towards the Indian fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) during the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match last month. The footage, which was shared online when India were taking on Australia in the fifth and final BGT Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), had the Australian spectators taunting their Indian counterparts by saying, “Where’s your visa?”
Although SportsTiger can’t verify the viral video’s authenticity, it is a major cause of concern for the Australian cricket community as a whole, especially when they are trying quite hard to be inclusive of all walks of people. The Indian cricket fans, who have taken a keen interest in the ongoing BGT Test series, making their way to Australia from all over the world to see the top players in action, won’t be at ease about traveling down under next time around, especially if the video turns out to be authentic.
Watch the video here:
Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were racially abused during BGT 2020-21
Notably, during the BGT 2020-21 series, Mohammed Siraj and current Indian captain Jasprit Bumrah had to face racist slurs from Australian fans at the SCG, with the former being allegedly called a “brown monkey.” The on-field umpires, to whom then Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane raised the incident, intervened on the matter, which led to multiple spectators getting ejected from the SCG.
The incident led to a complaint from the Indian team management to the match referee David Boon, while Cricket Australian issued an apology to the players subjected to racial abuse. Moreover, in the ongoing BGT series, the Australian fans have been constantly booing the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Virat Kohli after their heated interaction on the field with the opposition players.
As far as the Sydney Test goes, Australia reached 9/1 in three overs at stumps on day one after losing the wicket of Usman Khawaja on the last ball of the day’s play. After India captain Rohit Sharma opted out of the match in a surprising turn of events, India were bowled out for 185 runs in 72.2 overs following stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah’s decision to bat first after winning the toss on a spicy pitch at the SCG.
