New Delhi: Cricket Australia (CA) on Thursday confirmed that the members of Australia’s under-19 cricket team will be punished after they were accused of “casual racism” on social media.
Many players of Australia's U-19 squad had reportedly made fun of non-English speaking fans from the sub-continent on photo-sharing application Instagram on a post.
Before the quarterfinal match between India and Australia, Aussie cricketer Jake Fraser-McGurk posted a photo on Instagram. And McGurk's several teammates including top-order batsman Sam Fanning, Oliver Davies, Liam Scott and Tanveer Sangha commented on the photo, making fun of non-native English speakers.
“Sir great player, big fan and will play for India one day,” Ollie Davies wrote.
“Sir, give me Whatsapp number I want to be friend,” Liam Scott commented.
After learning about their players' behaviour, Cricket Australia on Thursday said they were disappointed.
“We are extremely disappointed that some of the Australian under-19 squad members have used inappropriate language in posts on social media, which we reported to the ICC as soon as it came to our attention,” CA’s integrity chief Sean Carroll said in a statement.
“Some of that language could be interpreted as ridiculing non-native English language speakers. I have spoken to the players this morning and expressed in no uncertain terms that such language has no place in society and falls well short of the standards we expect as Australian cricketers.”
Meanwhile, Australia was knocked out of the ongoing U-19 World Cup at the hands of India in the quarter-finals.
