Something had to give somewhere. That the snap in the ongoing serenity should emerge in the form of charges of racist remarks within a team that has had the worst of the fortunes, is sad. It is sadder still that the insinuation should occur in an event that is being held in South Africa, a country that had got rid of a long-standing apartheid rule just about two decades ago.
The reference is to a charge made by a former Indian player and now a television anchor, Ajay Jadeja, that racist remarks are being hurled at Indian players who are members of the lowly-placed Kolkata Knight Riders team, owned by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan.
Ajay Jadeja's sensational claim on Monday, saying Indian players were being ill-treated by foreign staff of the beleaguered Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL, now going on in South Africa.
Jadeja hinted that a member of the KKR foreign coaching staff had racial overtones to his language used for an Indian player during the tournament, which has not seen the team winning barring in just one match where they triumphed via Duckworth-Lewis method.
"I can assure you that there is definitely a divide and Indian players are being treated very badly." Jadeja told a news channel.
Talking of a particular incident, Jadeja said " I know so many players in the KKR team. One player was asked to come off the field and when he came off and asked "Why did you want me to come off? One of the coaches in KKR says 'You Indian, you do what I ask you to do'," he said.
Jadeja insisted his claims were true, saying he had the information from the horse's mouth and that the team was no more than a divided house. The divide is between Indian and foreign players.
The KKR team has been dealing with controversies way before the start of the tournament when their coach John Buchanan proposed the multiple-captain theory. They have lost eight of their 10 matches so far.
Even then, the squad looked a happy bunch until Shahrukh Khan was present in South Africa. He had returned to India for the elections but had issued a long consoling statement to lift the morale of the team.
Now, this latest controversy and so serious at that.
There are a host of Indian correspondents, both from the print and electronic media, following the action closely in all parts of South Africa. There has never been a dispatch so far suggesting even a hint of any racist remark from any quarters. Finally, it has come from someone sitting in India.
Is this a part of the campaign that has taken up cudgels on behalf of Sourav Ganguly, who was sacked as captain. This needlessly made a big issue and was the original cause of building camps in the KKR team.
That things should have come to such a head that traces of racism are being deliberately painted. This is not something that can be dismissed lightly. Not only the South Africa government, which has rolled the red carpet for the tournament at such a shorts notice, but also for the Indian government to take it up because it is a matter of the cordial relations that exists between the two countries. More importantly, it is to be seen how the International Cricket Council reacts to the issue, if at all it has a grain of truth in it.
