Phil Simmons Reveals Being Racially Abused While Playing League Cricket in England

West Indies head coach Phil Simmons has opened on the time when he became a victim of racism. As a member of various sides in league cricket in England during the 1980s and 1990s, the 57-year-old revealed that that was the time when Englishmen inflicted racial abuse on him. The likes of Darren Sammy, Michael Carberry, Chris Gayle have all come and spoke about their experience and strongly opposed it.

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Anti-Racism as a topic became quite a movement since the last month when a disgraceful incident at Minneapolis in the United States triggered it. Across all regions in America and the United Kingdom, people have begun widespread protests and named it as “Black Lives Matter”. It was to honour the demise of George Floyd, a black man, killed by the cops in the United States.

Speaking of the same, Phil Simmons stated that he hadn’t faced racial abuse as much in county cricket as he did in the leagues. Simmons admitted that it is a terrible thing to undergo since you are all by yourself and the same also affected his wife when he was up there.

“I encountered quite a bit (of racism) up in the leagues. In county cricket I haven’t really encountered that much. But I have encountered it in the leagues. It’s not a nice thing to face. Especially in the leagues where you’re by yourself sometimes. It affected my wife when I was up there. It’s not a nice thing.” Simmons stated as quoted by ESPN Cricnfo.

We definitely are thinking about things that we can do to show our solidarity with the movement: Phil Simmons

Having featured in three or four different leagues in England, the Trinidad-born wants to show their unity with “Black Lives Matter” movement. Simmons, who is in England, along with the national team, stated that talks are ongoing with the English and by the end of the week, they would come to a conclusion. England and West Indies will join hands to resume international cricket in the form of a three-Test series beginning from the 8th of July.

“I played in three or four different leagues. It was one particular league up in the northeast. We definitely are thinking about things that we can do to show our solidarity with the movement,” Simmons said. “We definitely have plans to show our unity and our backing to it. The chats with the English are on-going and by the end of this week we’ll see what we can do together,” he added.

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