Southampton, Jul 7 (Cricket News) There is absolutely no place for racism in sports, said England skipper Ben Stokes, who was left disappointed to hear reports of racist behaviour from the crowd during the rescheduled fifth Test against India in Birmingham.
Several Indian supporters alleged incidents of racial abuses from other fans on the sidelines of the Edgbaston Test that England won by seven wickets to draw the series 2-2.
"Amazing week on the pitch but really disappointed to hear reports of racist abuse at Edgbaston. Absolutely no place for it in the game," Stokes wrote on his Twitter handle.
"Hope all the fans at the white-ball series have a brilliant time and create a party atmosphere. That's what cricket's about!!." Following reports of racist abuse aimed at Indian fans during the fourth day of the final Test, an investigation was launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Warwickshire County Cricket Club into the incident.
In a slew of measures, Warwickshire decided to deploy "undercover football crowd-style spotters" in the stadium at Edgbaston, which will also host the second T20I between India and England, to listen and report abusive behaviour.
Warwickshire decided to take other measures, such as increasing police presence at games to handle incidents swiftly, raising racial awareness through the Edgbaston mobile app, attaching QR code stickers on every seat in the Eric Hollies Stand linking people to the app.
English cricket has been grappling with allegations of racism with multiple such cases being reported in the last couple of years.
Former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq had provided testimony to a British parliamentary committee last year which led to an investigation into claims of institutional racism at Yorkshire and resulted in major reforms.
Rafiq also played a role in highlighting the racist abuses in Edgbaston by retweeting some of the social media posts describing the racist behaviour.
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News Source : PTI
