During the 2020-21 series between India and Australia, Mohammad Siraj faced some racial abuse and Shane Warne came in support of him.
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Shane Warne is arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game. He was the first bowler in the world to claim 700 test wickets. He ended his career with 708 test wickets, whereas he has 293 ODI wickets under his belt. Warne also bowled the “Ball of the Century” in the 1993 Ashes.
Apart from his on-field records, Warne has had a lot of controversies throughout his career. He failed the drug test ahead of the 2003 World Cup. Warne even passed on the critical information to a bookmaker about the game. He has also been in a rift with Muttiah Muralitharan, Arjuna Ranatunga and Steve Waugh. Despite all the off-field controversies, Warne is hugely admired in the cricketing circuit.
Shane Warne slams spectators for racial comments on Mohammad Siraj
The 2020-21 test series between Australia and India was one of the most iconic ones. After losing the Adelaide test in a shambolic way, the Indian team managed to win the series by 2-1. The last game at the Gabba and Rishabh Pant’s heroics will not be forgotten for a long while.
However, during the Sydney Test, an ugly thing happened. A section of the crowd was chanting racial slurs on Mohammad Siraj. They were calling him “Brown Dog”, and Siraj officially made a complaint about it to the officials. Ajinkya Rahane along with the Indian players had a conversation with the umpires and the game was stopped for almost then minutes.
Australian crowd started abusing me, it made me mentally strong, not letting it hamper my performance was my prime concern. My job was to inform my captain that I was being abused & I did: Cricketer Mohammed Siraj on racial slurs hurled at Indian cricketers in Sydney, Australia pic.twitter.com/yME7Ckpp9s
— ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2021
At least five people from the stands were forced to leave the ground. Mohammad Siraj pointed out the direction from which the racial slurs were coming. There were racial chants on Jasprit Bumrah as well.
Shane Warne was quite vocal in criticizing the racial chants on the Indian players. He demanded “severe punishment” for the culprits in the stands.
“Disgraceful to be honest, absolutely disgraceful. Should never happen, especially what’s happened in the last 12 months or so with everything else around the world. Let’s hope they come down heavy and find the culprits,” said Warne.
