Indian fan reveals how Mohammed Siraj and Co faced racial abuses during the SCG Test

The third Test in Sydney was a witness to some jaw-dropping cricket after Steve Smith’s 27th Test century and some incredible rear-guard action from the Indian batsmen on the fifth day. However, the game was also marred with a few controversies.

Even as Smith and Aussie skipper Tim Paine went under the scanner for their behaviour, the crowd at the SCG grabbed the limelight as well. During the third and fourth days’ play, a few drunk fans hurled racial slurs at the Indian fielders.

Strict actions were taken and six people were evicted from the ground on an immediate basis. Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj also complained to the umpire regarding the same.

In the meantime, a fan, named Krishna Kumar, made further revelations into the crowd behaviour in Sydney. He termed their behaviour as ‘appalling’.

This is the first time I was really seeing something like this: Team India’s fan

“At 10:30 am I don’t expect people to be drunk. On Saturday, starting from 10:30, there were chants of ‘s*****s, s*****s, s*****s going around’. Rahane was batting at the time, and their chants such as ‘Rahane is a s****r, all Indians are s******. This is the first time I was really seeing something like this. I have never faced something like this and to me it was appalling,” Kumar told Sports Today.

“I turned around and it was a group of 5-6 guys, aged 19-23, young guys who were having a good time and thought that this was really funny. I tried to have some eye contact to let them know that it was not cool, but you know, they just continued. ‘All Indians are s*****s they continued to say,” the fan was quoted as saying.

A number of Aussie greats, including Michael Hussey and Shane Warne, slammed the audience for mistreating the Indians and not giving them their due respect. As far as the match was concerned, it ended in a draw, but not after the resilience shown by Ravi Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant.

With the series levelled at 1-1, the fourth and final Test is scheduled to get underway on January 15 at The Gabba in Brisbane.