Trouble seems to be brewing for the Board of Control for Cricket in India for allegedly not taking seriously the reports that Australian players were subjected to racial abuse from a section of the crowd during the fifth ODI of the ongoing Future Cup series at Vadodra last week.
International Cricket Council, which takes issues related to racial abuse or comments very seriously, has been informed by the match referee Chris Broad, overseeing the India-Australia one-day cricket series, that the crowd indeed indulged in hurling racial comments at the visiting players.
According to Fox Sports, Broad has sent a report to the ICC mentioning that there were racial taunts during the game, which Australia won by nine wickets.
Fox Sports further added that it was, however, unclear whether Broad has filed another critical report in this regard about the sixth match at Nagpur, where all-rounder Andrew Symonds was allegedly the victim of 'monkey' chants.
Meanwhile, media quoted Cricket Australia public affairs manager Peter Young saying: 'It can undeniably be difficult with spectator comment. Most of the time, you don't get to hear it.'
Young, who is also CA's anti-racism officer, said Australia had similar problems when South Africa's players complained of racial abuse during its tour two years ago.
'When South Africa was in Australia two summers ago, no one from CA or any of the state associations ever heard the comments and it made it very hard to locate the alleged offenders and then take action,' Young claimed.
He was of the view that the Indian Board could initiate its own probe if it felt the need to do so.
'The code does not say you have to receive an official complaint before you investigate it,' he added.
An ICC spokesman, meanwhile, confirmed that Broad has informed the council of his concerns, but gave it another twist by saying 'that the match referee has a standard anti-racism proforma to fill in at the end of every Test and one-day international. It just so happens that he filled it in slightly differently from the norm.'
