Daren Sammy reassured by SRH teammate that ‘he operated from a place of love’

Former West Indies captain Darren Sammy had revealed that he was subjected to racial slur when he was playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. Sammy put out a video on Monday, in which he expanded on his feelings when he came to know the meaning of the word he and Sri lanka Thisara were referred to. The former West Indies captain then decided to personally contact the ones who used to call him by the name.

Darren Sammy on Thursday posted saying that he had the conversation with ‘one of the players’ that he had accused of using a racial jibe. Sammy said that after having an interesting conversation with the teammate he was reassured that the word came from a place of love.

“I’m pleased 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 (sic),” Daren Sammy said on social media.

Sammy who had played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 and 2014 IPL season said that at the time when he was being called with the word, he did not know what it meant, and his teammates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name.

“I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called as that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny,” Sammy had said.

“Now, I realise it was degrading, I will be texting you guys and I will ask you as to when you called me with that name, did you all mean it in any bad way or form? I have had great memories in all my dressing rooms, so all those who used to you call me with that word, think about it, let’s have a conversation, if it was in a bad way then I would be really disappointed,” he added.

Surprisingly, Sammy’s teammates in the time in SRH, Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel and Venugopal Rao, however, said thay had no idea about such racial comment made towards Sammy.

“I was there with him (Sammy) in 2014. I feel had this really happened, the matter would definitely have been discussed. So I’m not aware of such things as nothing was discussed in a larger way. But at the same time, we need to educate our people because I’ve seen them (racial jibes) in domestic cricket,” Irfan said.

Sammy has been a vociferous supporter of the protest that are currently taking place in the United States over the death of George Floyd. The West Indian also made an appeal to the ICC and other cricket board to support the fight against racism and social injustice.

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