Cricket Australia : No place for Racism
October 24, 2007 • News
“There is no place for racism in cricket. We will take the strictest, harshest action possible if there are incidents,” said Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland on Tuesday. He did not believe Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan would face racist abuse from crowds during the upcoming tour. Sutherland was responding to reported comments from former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga advising Murali to skip the tour in the wake of Australia’s recent racially-charged one-day series in India.
Ranatunga told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper from Colombo that it would be best for the spinner to miss the series, given the abuse he has suffered from Australian crowds about his controversial bowling action. “I told him I wish he wasn’t touring Australia because of the amount of trouble he has had,” Ranatunga told the newspaper.
Sutherland said he was pleased Muralitharan was visiting Australia after boycotting the 2004 tour. “He has been to Australia before and the mere fact that he is coming is fantastic for cricket and we are very much looking forward to seeing him on our shores and doing his best,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland was confident that the local crowds would not resort to racial abuse. “I’m not concerned about it,” he said. “We had a major campaign last year to increase awareness and understanding — people know where the line is drawn,” he said.
Cricket Australia also said it would mount an advertising campaign on television and place anti-racism messages on the bottom of beer cups in an effort to avoid racist behaviour during the Australian summer.
Sutherland said he was confident steps taken by Cricket Australia to defuse crowd misbehaviour would be successful.
Muralitharan boycotted Sri Lanka’s 2004 tour to Australia after Australian Prime Minister John Howard labelled him a “chucker.” However, he returned to Australia for a one-off Test for the Rest of the World in Sydney in 2005 and a one-day series in 2006, when he was unofficially reprimanded for making a one-fingered gesture at taunting spectators in Perth.
The upcoming two-Test trip to Australia has an added edge because Muralitharan needs only nine wickets to overtake retired local hero Shane Warne’s world record of 708 Test wickets. — Agencies (Image Source: ABC Network)