‘My brother assured me he operated from place of love’: Darren Sammy after speaking to ‘one of the guys’

Former West Indies skipper Darren Sammy had revealed last week that he was subjected to racial comments while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. Sammy released a video on Monday on Instagram, in which he elaborated on his feelings when he got to know the meaning of the word he and Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera were called in the Sunrisers Hyderabad dressing room. Sammy then decided to personally contact the ones who used to call him by that ‘derogatory word’.

The two-time T20 World Cup-winning captain on Thursday posted on social media that he had the conversation with ‘one of the players’ that he had accused of using a potentially racist jibe. Sammy revealed that after having an ‘interesting conversation’ with the player, he was reassured that the word came from ‘a place of love’.

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“I’m pleased to say that I’ve had a really interesting conversation with one of the guys and we are looking at ways to educate rather than focusing on the negatives. My brother reassured me that he operated from a place of love and I believe him (sic),” Daren Sammy said on social media.

Earlier, Sammy, who represented Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 and 2014 seasons of IPL, had said that at the time when he was being called with the word, he didn’t know the meaning, and his teammates used to laugh every time after calling him by that name. 

“I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are, I must admit at that time when I was being called as that word I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, I did not know what it meant, every time I was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment, I thought teammates are laughing so it must be something funny,” Sammy had said.

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“Now, I realise it was degrading, I will be texting you guys and I will ask you as to when you called me with that name, did you all mean it in any bad way or form? I have had great memories in all my dressing rooms, so all those who used to you call me with that word, think about it, let’s have a conversation, if it was in a bad way then I would be really disappointed,” he added.

Interestingly, Sammy’s teammates during that time in SRH, the likes of Irfan Pathan, Venugopal Rao, and Parthiv Patel, however, said they were not aware of any such racial comments made towards the West Indian all-rounder.

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“I was there with him (Sammy) in 2014. I feel had this really happened, the matter would definitely have been discussed. So I’m not aware of such things as nothing was discussed in a larger way. But at the same time, we need to educate our people because I’ve seen them (racial jibes) in domestic cricket,” Irfan said.

The former Windies skipper has been a vocal supporter of the protests that are currently going on in the United States over the death of an African-American man named George Floyd. Sammy had also made an appeal to the ICC and other cricket boards to support the fight against social injustice and racism.