News in 2006

18th November 2006

Monty Panesar attacked by fan

Cricket Australia yesterday tried to play down the significance of taunts directed at English spinner Monty Panesar, but the British Government was having none of it.

Panesar, an Indian Sikh, was called a "a stupid Indian who can't speak English" by a spectator as he fielded near the boundary on the first day of England's clash against NSW at the SCG last Sunday.

CA chief executive James Sutherland stressed that authorities would deal with fans making racist comments at matches this summer, but wondered whether the "stupid Indian" call was racist.

"It's very much alleged; certainly we haven't had any official complaint or anything from the English team," Sutherland said.

"There's no place for racism or racist taunts at our matches.

"What we were talking about before were racist comments -- I don't think there's too much racist about that -- but clearly it's something that's going to be monitored closely."

England's team management did not make an official complaint, but the England and Wales Cricket Board acknowledged the incident had occurred.

CA recently unveiled tough new guidelines to tackle racial abuse with fans facing lifetime bans if found guilty.

But that was not enough for Britain's Sports Minister Richard Caborn, who declared yesterday he wanted to broach the issue with his Australian counterpart, Senator Rod Kemp.

"Authorities have to be at war on this," Caborn said from India where he is leading a British sports business delegation.

"I'm going to be talking to my counterpart in Australia, we've got a little difficulty down there."

Caborn also called for greater action from the International Cricket Council.

"It's an issue for the ICC to deal with, just like FIFA's done in football," he said. "In football we've been reasonably successful.

"We've tackled it in the United Kingdom through a big campaign that implores people to show a red card to racism."

The ICC toughened its anti-racism code earlier this year after South African and Sri Lankan cricketers complained they had been racially abused last summer in Australia.

Source: The Sydney Herald