Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan on Saturday opened up on the racism allegations made by West Indies cricketer Daren Sammy during his two-season stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Irfan revealed that Sammy was good friends with Ishant Sharma and all other teammates and questioned why the two-time World Cup-winning captain did not raise his voice back then.
Sammy has alleged that he and Sri Lanka's Thisara Perera were called "kalu" during their SRH days and that he wasn't aware of that word meant until now.
Following the allegation, an old Instagram post from Ishant's account resurfaced where he had referred to Sammy as "kalu" in the caption.
"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 told Aaj Tak.
"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," he added.
Earlier on Friday, Sammy tweeted saying that he had an 'interesting conversation' with one of his former teammates from SRH who assured him that the word "operated from a place of love".
"I’m please to say that I’ve had a really interesting conversation with one of the guys and we are looking at ways to educate rather than focusing on the negatives. My brother reassured me that he operated from a place of love and I believe him," Sammy wrote in a tweet
