NEW DELHI: Former West Indies captain Daren Sammy has called for his Indian Premier League teammates to clear the air and apologise over alleged racist slurs during 2013-14.

Sammy said he recently found about the meaning of a “degrading” name he said was often directed at him by his Sunrisers Hyderabad teammates in the Twenty20 tournament. “I was listening to Hasan Minhaj (Indian-American comedian) talking about how some of the people in his culture view or describe black people,” Sammy wrote on Instagram on Monday.

He wrote in an earlier post Sunday that the word was ‘kalu’ - which means black man in Hindi - but did not specify which players used it.

“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.

“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 would get in touch with those 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.

Sunrisers declined to comment on Sammy’s allegations when contacted.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2020