‘Thought it meant a stallion’ – Darren Sammy clarifies his birthday tweet for VVS Laxman in 2014

Darren Sammy has been grabbing the limelight ever since the issue of racism came to the fore after George Floyd’s demise. The veteran has spoken strongly against differentiating on the basis of colour. During his stay with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), he said that he was being referred to as ‘kalu’, something one of Ishant Sharma’s post showed.

But back then, the St Lucia-born wasn’t aware of it’s meaning, misinterpreting it as ‘stallion’. In fact, he had also used the word ‘kalu’ while wishing VVS Laxman on his birthday way back in 2014. After he has spoken up, he has been greeted with mixed responses. Sammy has now given clarifications on his tweet for Laxman, who has been with the Orange Army since their maiden season.

I was saying: remember the dark stallion- Darren Sammy

“I thought it meant a stallion. If you notice back in 2014 I sent a Happy Birthday tweet to VVS Laxman. I said: ‘Happy Birthday to you brother. Hope you have a great day.’ And I started laughing. And I said, ‘remember dark kalu.’ So, I was saying: remember the dark stallion,” Sammy was quoted as saying to ESPNcricinfo.

“So, imagine (now) you listening six years later and somebody from that culture telling you, ‘Hey, bro, this word has a degrading meaning to you because of the colour of your skin.’ Then automatically you want to have a conversation,” he added.

The 36-year-old Sammy got to know about the meaning of ‘kalu’ when he came across a video of Hasan Minhaj, an Indian-American comedian. During the conversation, he revealed that he has been wanting to get back to those people, who referred to him by that name, asking for clarifications.

“It’s only because I listened to that video (of Minhaj), once he started describing the word being used to describe people of colour from these parts, once he said the word, I instantly remembered. Because it was my nickname for almost two seasons (at Sunrisers),” Sammy quipped.

From 2013, Sammy played for the Sunrisers before moving to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2015 for INR 2.8 crores. In 22 IPL games, he managed 295 runs and 11 wickets.