After several Indian fans complained of racial abuse on the sidelines of the fifth and final Test vs England at Edgbaston, Ben Stokes, came forward to label the whole incident disappointing.
"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 to 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, and 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 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.
As far as the match goes, England scripted history to chase a mammoth target of 378 to win the last test. India and England will next compete against each other in a three-match T20 series starting July 7.
(Inputs PTI)
