Former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy says he wants his former IPL team-mates to apologies after coming to the realisation that the nickname they used for him is actually a racial slur.
During his time with the Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL side, Sammy said he was repeatedly called "kalu" which is Hindi for "black".
In a video posted to Instagram, Sammy said that he didn't see a problem with it at the time, however after watching a comedy show on Netflix from Hasan Minhaj, an American Comedian of Indian heritage, he realised that the name he had been called throughout the 2013-14 IPL season was actually an insult.
“I was listening to Hasan Minhaj talking about how some of his people in his culture, view or describe black people. Now that doesn’t apply to everybody, but I say this because of something I experienced. So, I said I was angry after listening to him describing a word that they used to describe black people, which he was saying is not in a good way and it was degrading.”
“So instantly I remember when I played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 and 2014 I was being called the exact same word that he described that was degrading to us black people.”
Sammy said he believed the nickname was used by his team mates as a term of endearment.
“I thought it meant ‘strong stallion’ or whatever it is. And I saw no problems with it."
“Every time I was called, it was me and Thisara Perera, there was always laughter in the moment. So, being the team man, I thought, ‘Hey, teammates are happy, it must be something fun.’"
In an Instagram post from 2014, Indian fast bowler, Ishant Sharma refers to Sammy as "kalu".
The St Lucian all-rounder also revealed that it became so common-place for him to be called that name that he ended up adopting it as his own name when introducing himself to others.
Sammy said he will be in touch with his former team mates to see what their intentions really were.
“I will be messaging those people. You guys know who you are.”
“If it was in any way, shape or form what Minhaj said it meant, I’m very disappointed and I will still be angry and deserve an apology from you guys because I saw all of you guys as my brothers. So talk to me reach out to me, please clear the air.”
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