Darren Sammy, the two-time world T20 champion, has recently come to the open about racial slurs against him during the IPL when people associated with him in the team had continually called and nicknamed him kallu’. He put up a story on his Instagram handle saying he and his teammate Sri-Lankan player Thisara Perera were often called ‘Kalu’ by the Sunrisers Hyderabad players. He explained that he didn’t know the meaning of the word at that time. And as soon as he came to know, he wanted to talk to personally with his teammates who insulted him. He then tried to contact a few players and shared, he then took to Twitter to explain that they were his brothers and had no intention of degrading him and reassured him the word came from ‘a place of love.’
“I’m please to say that I’ve had a really interesting conversation with one of the guys, and we are looking at ways to educate rather than focusing on the negatives. My brother reassured me that he operated from a place of love, and I believe him,” Sammy tweeted.
He then discussed how he and his ex-teammate chatted about how they can educate the people rather than focusing on the negatives. People from all walks of life retweeted his post. Interestingly it also caught the eye of a Bollywood star Swara Bhaskar. She retweeted, “Dear @darensammy88 if someone used the N word at a black person & said they “operated from a place of love” what would u say? Same with word ‘Kaalu’ & it’s variations. And team members of @SunRisers. Show some decency & spine #SaySorryToDaren officially! #thatsnotcricket @IPL.”
Darren Sammy was quick to respond and take a stand for his teammates while acknowledging the problem. “Don’t get me wrong I’m not condoning what was done/said. I’m saying let’s use this opportunity to educate each other, so it doesn’t happen again. One can only apologize if he/she feels wrong about something. I’m confident&proud to be black. That will never change,” Sammy said.
Many people from India supported Darren Sammy, retweeting that they worship the goddess Kali and would never use that word in a derogatory manner. At the same time, some just wanted Darren to ignore her comment.