Several members of Australia’s under-19 World Cup cricket squad face sanctions for comments on social media that have been branded casual racism.
Cricket Australia’s head of integrity and security Sean Carroll has spoken with those players who recently posted broken-English responses to an Instagram post from teammate Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Oliver Davies, Liam Scott, Lachlan Hearne, Sam Fanning and Tanveer Sangha were among those who posted remarks Carroll admits “could be interpreted as ridiculing non-native English language speakers”.
The comments, which have since been deleted, were described as casual racism by ESPNcricinfo’s Shashank Kishore.
Carroll made it clear the conduct was unacceptable while probing the matter and speaking with every player involved.
Some of Australia’s under-19 cricketers are in hot water over a social media post. (Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
CA, recognising that some of the players are minors and that most do not have their parents with them in South Africa, will fully address the matter when the squad returns home.
“We are extremely disappointed that some of the Australian under-19 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,” Carroll said in a statement.
“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.
“The players have apologised for the language and have taken down the posts.”
The social-media gaffe follows a bizarre setback for Fraser-McGurk, who was sent home from the World Cup after a monkey scratched his face.
Fanning was also found guilty on Thursday of a level one breach of the ICC Code of Conduct and received two demerit points for an incident during the quarter-final loss to India early Wednesday (AEDT).
Australia have two more matches to play to determine their ranking at the next under-19 World Cup.
Lawrence
Roar Rookie
Sangha must be offending himself
badmanners
Roar Rookie
The world has moved on from "On the buses" and Greg Ritchie "Mahatmacoat" style of "humour"
Micko
Roar Rookie
badmanners this website is up to it's old tricks, so...why is mocking Indians "racism"?!!!
Micko
Roar Rookie
Yes, but how is that "racist" though? All humans mock other humans, why is this exceptional?
badmanners
Roar Rookie
The Aus players were mocking the way Indians and others from the sub-continent talk.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Ok...so how is that "racism"? :shocked:
badmanners
Roar Rookie
Yes as Indians often add "sir" where in Aus it would be deemed unnecessary.
JGK
Roar Guru
Another choke today I see.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Yes Bob, I'm baffled: where exactly is the "casual racism"?
Micko
Roar Rookie
What's the issue with them being white or not? How's that relevant? :shocked:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Someone's put a link above where you can find said comments.
Targa
Roar Rookie
From what I've read it was actually supposed to be a private "team" page but the privacy settings weren't set up properly. Back to the tournament itself we (NZ) play Bangladesh in one semifinal while it is India-Pakistan in the other. NZ have never won this tournament so it would be nice after everything has turned to custard in NZ cricket since that men's World Cup final.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Ok, had a look. The grammar nazi in me is horrified but that's about it. Kids these days seem to have no idea how to put a proper sentence together when they use social media. Not sure what the 'Sir' bit is all about though. Maybe that's the problem.
badmanners
Roar Rookie
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28596807/ca-consider-sanctioning-u-19-players-controversial-instagram-comments The comments are in the article, make your own mind up, I suspect they'll get a good talking to and not much else.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
It's standard practice on character limited platforms actually. Almost a different language. If that's what they're actually on about then I fully agree with you. Or, in text-speak, UR right m8 !!
concerned supporter
Roar Rookie
Seems like they recently watched the late great Peter Sellers movie THE PARTY.
Basil
Guest
hardly surprising, we are talking about the Indian dominated, obsessively anti-Oz cricinfo here. Kishore must have spent hours trawling these kids social media searching for something to attack them with. I've seen some of the posts, and sure they are a bit immature, stuff like "u hit ball very hard", but to call them racist is a stretch, but par for the course it seems nowadays. Now these kids names are bandied about in the media as racists. Hope you are proud of yourself Kishore!
JGK
Roar Guru
Maybe he was referring to Tanveer Sangha’s posts.
JGK
Roar Guru
Hard to know what to think if we can’t see exactly what was said.
Andrew Blake
Roar Rookie
Not really a comment for the writer but for the editors. Why is racist in quote marks in the headlines? You’re implying that is up for debate or that there is too sides to the story. I know white people get all uppity about being called racist, particularly when it comes to casual racism. But called it what it is.