Some of Australia’s U-19 players could face sanctions from the Cricket Australia board, for comments aimed at Indian fans.
The comments in question were made on Instagram, in response to a post by opener Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has since returned home for treatment after suffering a monkey scratch. Fraser-McGurk, in his post had said, “Quarter-finals, here we come!”, to which some of his teammates replied in broken English and made a clear reference to India.
“Sir great player, big fan and will play India one day,” batsman Ollie Davies‘ comment read. “You hit ball very hard sir,” Tanveer Sangha replied. Sam Fanning added, “How u bat so good young man”.
Screenshots of the comments started going viral as aggrieved Indian fans started sharing the same. The players deleted the offending comments the next day, but the damage had been done.
Aus U-19 players mocking Indians with broken english before quarterfinals against India U19 #U19CWC pic.twitter.com/Iy3HV3FKVg
— Straight Cut (@NewGenFan) January 25, 2020
“We are extremely disappointed that some of the Australian under-19s 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,” Sean Carroll, CA’s head of integrity and security, said in an interview with The Australian.
The Australia U-19 Instagram page is reported to have come in for a lot of unsavoury comments from Indian fans, especially after they were defeated by India in the quarter-final. Subsequently, comments on the posts were disabled, according to news.com.au.
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The Australian players will face sanctions only upon returning home from South Africa, as some of them are minors and don’t have their parents with them on tour. The likely sanctions, among others, will include “education” and “cultural sensitivity training”.
“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,” Carroll said.
“Cricket Australia will consider sanctions upon their return home from South Africa, which will include but not be limited to, education and cultural sensitivity training.”
