Former West Indies cricket captain Darren Sammy has alleged he was a victim of a racist slur used by his Indian team-mates when he played for an Indian Premier League (IPL) team in 2013-14.
In a video that Sammy, 36, posted on social media on Tuesday, he said his Hyderabad Sunrisers team-mates used to call him “kaalu”, Hindi slang for black, but he did not know what the word meant.
Sammy said some unnamed Sunrisers team-mates would call him “kaalu” and he only became aware of its racial connotations after watching a TV show that discussed the issue.
“I was listening to [Indian-American comedian] Hasan Minhaj talking about how some of the people in his culture view or describe black people,” Sammy said on Instagram.
“… 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,” he said.
“Instantly, I remembered when I played for Sunrisers in 2013 and 2014, I was being called the exact same word he described that was degrading to us black people.”
Sammy said he will be “messaging those people” to seek an apology from the Indian players.
“Because if it was in any way, shape or form what Minhaj said it meant, I’m very disappointed and I’d still be angry and deserve an apology from you guys,” he said.
Sammy said the word “kaalu” was also used to describe Sri Lankan team-mate Thisara Perera.
“I assumed it meant something else that was uplifting. But every time I was called it, it was me and Thisara, there was always laughter in the moment,” he said.
“But you could understand my frustration and my anger when it was pointed out to me that it wasn’t funny at all.”
