THE HIMALAYAN MAIL 7JAMMU THURSDAY JUNE 11, 2020

NEW DELHI:FormerIndia batsman AakashChopra has revealed that hewas subjected to racismduring his stint in Englishleague cricket.

His remarks come a dayafter West Indies all-rounder Darren Sammy al-leged racism within theSunRisers Hyderabadcamp. Chopra said during aleague match in England,two-South African playerscontinuously used abusivespree against him.

"We (cricketers) at onepoint or the other, havebeen victims of racism. I re-member when I used toplay league cricket in Eng-land, there were two SouthAfrican is one of the oppo-sition teams and both ofthem really went on an abu-sive spree. Even when I wasat the non-striker's end,they were after my life. Theywere constantly calling mePaki," Chopra said on hisYouTube channel.

"Now many believe Pakiis a short form of Pakistan

but that is not true. If youare brown-skinned. Ifyou're anywhere from theAsian subcontinent, thisterm is used to raciallyabuse. You're called Paki,and nobody likes it. Themoment you call anybodyPaki in England, you knowthe intention behind it.That's what happened to

me at that time. My teamstood by me but the truth isthe person in front of mewas doing it," he added.

The veteran, who played10 Tests for India between2003 and 2004, has furtherexplained how deep-rootedthe problem is in every partof the world. He cited theexample of Australian all-

rounder Andrew Symondswho faced racism in India.

"It happens everywhere.If you are white-skinned, ithappens with them toowhen they come to this partof the world. They are alsosubjected to this kind of be-haviour. In fact, when An-drew Symonds came to In-dia, so many Monkeychants started filling up theWankhede Stadium. That iswhen people were told thatyour entry will be banned,"Chopra said.

Sammy has been a vocalsupporter of the proteststhat are currently going onin the United States overthe death of an African-American man namedGeorge Floyd.

He had also made an ap-peal to the ICC and othercricket boards to supportthe fight against social in-justice and racism. Eversince the demise of Floyd,protests erupted from thedemonstrations in citiesfrom San Francisco toBoston.

Aakash Chopra alleges racialabuse in English League Cricket

NEW DELHI:Manches-ter United’s friendly againstStoke City was cancelled atthe last minute on Tuesdayafter the Championshipclub’s manager MichaelO’Neill tested positive forCOVID-19.

Stoke had arrived at

United’s training ground forthe game when they were in-formed of O’Neill’s positivetest. The Northern Irishmanhad tested negative in theprevious five rounds of test-ing, Stoke said in a state-ment.

“Stoke can confirm that

manager O’Neill has testedpositive for the COVID-19virus following the latestround of testing on Monday(June 8),” said Stoke, whoplay in the second tier ofEnglish football.

“He will now follow therelevant guidance and un-dergo a period of isolation,whilst continuing to be inregular virtual contact withhis coaching staff and play-ers.”

Soccer in England hasbeen suspended since mid-March due to the pandemicbut the Premier League is setto restart on June 17, withthe Championship followingsuit three days later.

United are fifth in the topflight, three points behindChelsea, and will resumetheir campaign against Tot-tenham Hotspur on June 19.

Manchester United cancel friendly afterStoke boss tests positive for COVID-19

NEW DELHI:The Eng-land and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) is currently intalks with India and SouthAfrica to host a women's tri-series later this year.

The Indian women's teamwere scheduled to play a bi-lateral series comprisingthree ODIs and three T20Isagainst England which waspostponed due to the coron-avirus pandemic.

The women's T20 WorldCup in Australia was the lastbig-ticket event to be held be-fore the COVID-19 pandemicbrought all sporting activitiesto a halt in March and ECBChief Executive Tom Harri-son is hoping there will besome international women'scricket this year if everythinggoes as per planned.

"Ultimately, we will getsome international cricket, allbeing well. The plan is to getsome international cricket forthe England team later thissummer. We're talking to theBCCI and Cricket SouthAfrica about bringing theirwomen's teams over to play atri-series," Harrison said dur-ing the Tuffers and Vaughanpodcast.

"So we've something to cel-ebrate with the women'sgame, in September this year.We're desperate to continuethe momentum, the growthin the women's game whichhas been so astonishing in thelast few years," he said.

However, Harrison said adecision on inviting India forthe tri-series will depend onhow the country combats thecontagious disease which israging in the subcontinentwith no signs of abating.

"There's a huge amount ofwork going on but we're not

controlling every part of thisdecision. One of the thingsthat has become clear aboutthis crisis is when you're deal-ing with international teams,you're dealing with theCOVID environment hereand overseas as well," he said.

UK has so far seen over285000 confirmed cases ofCOVID-19 with more than40,000 deaths.

"If we were in the eye of thestorm a few weeks ago, in thiscountry, it very much nowlooks like that has moved tothe subcontinent where

they're experiencing theirvery tough moment with thispandemic.

"And hopefully, they canget over that quickly whichwill enable us to bring theteam over," he said.

"Hopefully we continue tomake progress in defeatingthis virus and we can have agood tri-series with India andSouth Africa towards the endof the summer."

Over 2.7 lakh people havebeen infected by the coron-avirus in India with over7700 deaths reported so far.

England keen to host Indiafor women's tri-series

NEW DELHI:Pakistanbatsman Babar Azam'ssparkling form has earnedhim comparisons with ViratKohli but the elegant right-hander says he has a long wayto go before he can be consid-ered the Indian skipper'sequal.

Both top-order batsmenscore freely and play the coverdrive particularly well. Babaraverages above 45 in Testsand 50-plus in both One-DayInternationals and Twenty20Internationals, putting him inthe top five of all three for-mats.

"He's one of the best play-

ers. I'm still behind him,"Babar told the Cricbuzz web-site."I'll try to be as good ashim and win matches for mycountry."

Babar, who is Pakistan'slimited-overs captain, saidthere are some style similari-ties."Asian batsmen have thesame technique and stroke-play. I guess some of ourshots look similar," he added.

The 25-year-old says heclosely follows the careers ofthe top batsmen, watchinghow they master challengingconditions and overcome dif-ficult phases."I don't look tocompare myself with the

greats," he said."When I'mplaying, I'm not trying toshow off or prove any point toanyone. For me, it's aboutwhether I'm satisfied with myperformance.

"I'm happy as long as I canhelp Pakistan win matches.

"I'm rarely satisfied withmy performance because I al-ways see room for improve-ment."

Pakistan are scheduled toplay three Tests and the samenumber of Twenty20 Inter-nationals against England inAugust-September thoughexact dates and venues are yetto be finalised.

Pakistan's Babar wants toemulate India captain Kohli

NEW DELHI:At itsbest, the Virat Kohli-RohitSharma combo can makeany opposition look ordi-nary and on one such occa-sion, the desperate rivalskipper, Australia's AaronFinch, ended up turning tothe umpire for advice onhow to get the two out.

The umpire in questionwas Englishman MichaelGough and he recalledtelling Finch, "you're onyour own."

The 40-year-old Gough,who has so far officiated in62 ODIs including the tworecent India-Australia bilat-eral ODI series in 2019 and2020, recalled a conversa-tion that he had with Finchwhile the Indian run-ma-chines went about theirbusiness with ease.

"I remember a match be-tween India and Australia,and Virat Kohli and RohitSharma were putting on ahuge partnership," Gough

told Wisden CricketMonthly.

"I was stood next to AaronFinch at square-leg and hesaid to me, during the game,how it was unbelievable towatch these two great play-ers."Then he asked me how Iwould bowl at them! Ilooked at him and said, 'I'vegot enough on my plate,you're on your own there',"he said.

The third ODI betweenIndia and Australia at Ban-galuru in January this yearis likely to be the one thatGough is talking about.

Kohli (89) and Rohit (119)had forged a 137-runmatch-winning partnershipfor the second wicket as In-dia chased down a target of286 to claim a seven-wicketwin and seal the series 2-1.

During his playing career,Gough featured in 67 first-class games for Durham.

As an off-spinner, Goughtook 30 first-class wicketsand 21 list A wickets.

When Finch sought umpire'sadvice to break Kohli-Rohit stand

NEW DELHI:NaomiOsaka, the world’s highestpaid sportswoman, says thevoices of prominent ath-letes can be more influentialthan those of politicians andis determined that hers willbe heard on the subject ofracial injustice.

The two-time GrandSlam champion has faced abacklash on social media af-ter throwing her supportbehind the Black Lives Mat-ter (BLM) protests in thewake of the death of GeorgeFloyd, an unarmed blackman who died in police cus-tody on May 25.

The 22-year-old Osaka,who has Japanese and Hait-ian parents but grew up andlives mostly in the UnitedStates, says she has no in-tention of backing downand hopes to help drive realand permanent socialchange.

“I’m vocal because I be-lieve in the movement andwant to try to use my plat-

form to facilitate change,”Osaka told Reuters viaemail.

“George Floyd’s murderand the situation generallyin America has had a bigimpact on me. Being silentis never the answer. Every-one should have a voice inthe matter and use it.”

The death of Floyd whilehe was in the custody of theMinneapolis police hassparked worldwide protestsagainst racism and calls forreforms of U.S. law enforce-ment.

Osaka said she hadmarched in Minneapolisand attended other BlackLives Matters protests inLos Angeles, where shelives.

She says the climate haschanged considerably sincequarterback Colin Kaeper-nick took a knee during thenational anthem before a2016 NFL game and paidfor his protest by being os-tracised by the league.

“Colin has been puttingthis message out since2016. It took a pandemic,an economic crisis and atorturous murder on cam-era, all at the same time, forpeople to really hear him,”she said.

“It shouldn’t have beenthat way. If the NFL wantsto show that they really carethe first thing they should

so is take a knee togetherand give Colin his job back.That some people have saidwe as athletes should stickto sports is really insulting.”

National Football LeagueCommissioner RogerGoodell said last week theleague had made mistakesin not listening to playersand encouraged them “tospeak out and peacefully

protest”.In response to her com-

ments on social media, Os-aka has been told to “stay inher lane” and focus on ten-nis but has chosen to re-spond to her critics with ar-gument and a few amusingGIFs.

“I probably shouldn’tread all the trolling but it’shard to avoid,” said Osaka,who has over a million fol-lowers on Instagram.

“Using humour is defi-nitely one mechanism to ex-pose these people ... Callingthem out for their ignoranceand racism is also worth-while sometimes. I’m moresad for them than myself –to be so hateful and igno-rant can’t be an easy way tolive life.”

Osaka said racism neededto be challenged all aroundthe world and was delightedto see Black Live Mattersprotests in Japan, the coun-try she represents on the in-ternational stage.

Osaka in no mood to back down onsupport for Black Lives Matter

NEW DELHI:The In-ternational Olympic Com-mittee (IOC) has confirmedthat athletes are still bannedfrom protesting at theOlympic Games after sev-eral sports moved to allowprotests in the wake ofGeorge Floyd's death in po-lice custody, the Telegraphreported.

Rule 50 of the OlympicCharter states "no kind ofdemonstration or political,religious or racial propa-ganda is permitted in anyOlympic sites, venues orother areas."

Athletes who breach therule are subject to disciplineon a case-by-case basis andthe IOC issued guidelines inJanuary clarifying thatbanned protests includetaking a knee and other ges-tures.

The IOC told the Tele-graph the guidelines are stillin place and that it wouldnot speculate on "hypothet-ical cases 13 months beforethe Olympic Games", thenewspaper said.

Floyd, a 46-year-oldAfrican-American man,died after a white Min-neapolis police officerpressed his knee intoFloyd's neck for nearly nineminutes on May 25.

His death sparked world-wide protests against racialinjustice, with several soccerplayers in Germany's Bun-desliga delivering their ownmessages of support duringgames.

World governing bodyFIFA, which has shown zerotolerance for players ex-pressing their views on thefield, has asked competitionorganisers to use "commonsense" regarding protestsover Floyd's death.

NFL CommissionerRoger Goodell, who waswidely criticised for theleague's handling of ColinKaepernick's kneelingprotests in 2016, said on Fri-day the NFL had made mis-takes in not listening toplayers and encouragedthem to speak out and"peacefully protest".

Athletes banned from protestingat Olympics, confirms IOC