Responding to Daren Sammy’s allegations of facing racism during his stint with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League, former India pacer Irfan Pathan has said that the West Indian did not ever raised the issue during the team meetings.

Two-time World Cup-winning captain Daren Sammy had alleged that he and Thisara Perera were called “kalu” when they were part of the Indian Premier League. Kalu, a Hindi word, means a black person in English.

The former West Indies captain posted a video on his Instagram account on Monday, in which he further revealed that some of his teammates called him by that name.

However, Irfan Pathan said, had Sammy felt discriminated against, he should have told his teammates back then, when he played for the team in 2013 and 2014.

“Everybody has to talk in a certain way with the skipper with a lot of respect. Ishant and Sammy were very good friends, also the others. He used to come to my room regularly to have biryani,” Irfan Pathan, who was on Salaam Cricket 2020 alongside Mohammed Shami, said.

“Whatever time he spent with us was really amazing. Now with his comments on racism, nothing of such sort was told to us back then or during team meetings this issue didn’t crop up.”

“If he felt bad he should have told us back then, it wouldn’t have happened in that case. We need to change the culture for sure, body-shaming happens so frequently. We talk about people’s height, weight, colour. We can’t just hurt someone with our hands, it can also happen with words. It isn’t only about education but it also needs to be taught at home.”

“I have seen during domestic matches when teams from the south came to Baroda or from the west… one player used to make nasty comments so that others could have a laugh. In international cricket there is not just one person, a lot of people are there. Just for the sake of making others laugh someone crosses the line. This should not happen ever. We need to educate our kids about all this.”