Cricket Australia Set To Investigate Racial Abuse Toward Daniel Christian

Cricket Australia has launched an interrogation to possibly identify and sanction the people who hurled racial abuse at former Australian all-rounder Daniel Christian on social media, a day after Christian spoke about the existence of casual racism that exists in Australian cricket.

Christian, recently participated in the first episode of Cricket Australia’s new series ‘Cricket Connecting Country’ on Wednesday, in a bid to identify and tackle the racial abuses that indigenous cricketers have suffered.

”We are deeply disappointed to see blatantly racist and uneducated comments in the aftermath of Cricket Connecting Country’s premiere last night,” Cricket Australia posted on its official Twitter account.

“Whilst we have chosen not to name the publisher of these comments publicly, we want to strongly reinforce that any form of racism or discrimination has no place in cricket, sport, or wider society. Comments like these demonstrate just how far we still have to go,” it added.

“I think it [racism] is an issue in Australian cricket”- Daniel Christian

Alyssa Healy, Australian wicket-keeper, was the first to call out the racial slurs directed at Daniel Christian on Thursday and responded by throwing her weight of support behind the former all-rounder.

 “This sort of stuff is the very reason that these conversations need to keep happening….. keep up the good work @danchristian54.” Healy wrote.

Rachel Haynes, who was a fellow panelist during the discussion said-

“Last nights panel was one of the best initiatives I’ve been involved in. It was raw, honest and personal. It’s so disappointing to see Dan subject to racism while bravely sharing his insight and experience”

Speaking on the program, Daniel Christian said-

“I think it [racism] is an issue in Australian cricket, I don’t think it’s as ‘in your face’ as you might see around the world or even elsewhere in Australian culture. I think it’s definitely there, it’s more of a casual racism, just little throwaway lines here and there, made to be jokes and a lot of that for me personally has been around the colour of my skin and the fact that I don’t look Aboriginal or whatever that means. That’s the most noticeable thing for me.”

Aaron Finch, Australian white-ball captain, said that he has been in regular touch with Daniel Christian in recent months about the program being put to place.

“I know that there’s been a group of players who’ve been trying to put that all together and that’s a huge part of what we’re trying to achieve, telling the stories of people who are still in the game and making sure that everyone is as educated as they can be going forward and I think that’ll give us a great opportunity to sort of re-write the past and make sure when we’re moving forward it’s no longer a thing,” Finch said.

“There’s no place for casual racism, there’s no place for any racism, so that’s really important, and what Dan and Mel Jones, Ash Gardner and Josh Lalor have been doing for the Indigenous program in particular has been fantastic.” he added.

Also Read- Racism Is An Issue In Australian Cricket: Dan Christian