Sad to see this happen on field, says Virat Kohli on racial abuse in Australia

India batsman Virat Kohli, who is currently on paternal leave, has condemned the racial abuse against the Indian cricket team at Australia's Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). The cricketer, who is also the captain of the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore, called this incident "absolute peak of rowdy behaviour".

Kohli tweeted, "Racial abuse is absolutely unacceptable. Having gone through many incidents of really pathetic things said on the boundary lines, this is the absolute peak of rowdy behaviour. It's sad to see this happen on the field."

The cricketer added, "The incident needs to be looked at with absolute urgency and seriousness and strict action against the offenders should set things straight for once."

Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj was allegedly called a 'brown dog' and 'big monkey' by a group of Australian spectators during the third Test match on Sunday. Jasprit Bumrah, too, was subjected to various racist slurs. The Indian cricket team had reported this incident to the on-field umpires.

After Siraj alleged racial abuse and complained to the on-field umpires, the match was stopped for more than 10 minutes. As soon as Siraj reported racist abuse, at least five people were removed from the stands. Captain Ajinkya Rahane, other senior Indian players and two Australian batsmen also had a discussion with Siraj and the on-field umpires.

A BCCI source told PTI, "Siraj was referred to as 'brown dog' and 'big monkey', both of which are racist slurs. The matter was immediately brought to the notice of on-field umpires. They were constantly abusing Bumrah too."

Ravichandran Ashwin, who has also faced racist abuses at the SCG in the past said, "Have faced racism in Sydney earlier; needs to be dealt with an iron fist."

The source added, "Actually, the players didn't want to lose focus during the proceedings and decided that the matter would be reported only after the day's play was over. However, umpires have told us that moment anything of that nature happens, the players should report immediately."s

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