XtraTime Web Desk: Did Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma used to call West Indian cricketer Darren Sammy ‘Kaluu’ during his stint with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 & 2014.
An Instagram post from six years ago by Ishant Sharma has sparked such a debate as the West Indian cricketer alleged having faced racial slur in India during IPL.
Ishant posted a photograph of him with his former Sunrisers teammates Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Darren Sammy and Dale Steyn and wrote, “Me, bhuvi, kaluu and gun sunrisers,” The post was shared on May 14, 2014.
Another tweet by the swashbuckling West Indian all-rounder proves he took the slur in stride and was clueless about its meaning.
Sammy uploaded a video message on Instagram where the former West Indian skipper had angrily called out some of his teammates from the Sunrisers Hyderabad and said that they used the word kalu for him.
The all-rounder said that at the time, he did not know the word was a racial slur and used in a derogatory way for black people.
“You know it was degrading and so instantly I remembered that when I played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013 and 2014 I was being called the same word he described that was degrading to us black people,” recalled Sammy in the video, who had also captained the team during his stint in the IPL team.
“I will be messaging those people, you guys know who you are. I must admit at that time when I was being called that, I didn’t know what it meant, I thought the word meant strong stallion or whatever it is, and I saw no problems because I was ignorant about what it meant.
“But every time I and Thisara Perera was called with that word, there was laughter at that moment. Me being a team man, I thought teammates are happy, so it must be something funny,” Sammy said.