If the controversy surrounding the Ashes wasn’t enough
already, we have something new to look out for now. After the constant talks on
sledging and the Aussie players going overboard with it, Moeen Ali has come out
to claim that a section of the Aussie crowd directed racist remarks at him.
While fielding, someone from the crowd directed the remark
at him, but Ali didn’t report the incident to match officials. The issue came
to light when he spoke about it to the reporters.
"Somebody (in the crowd) asked me what time my kebab
shop opened," Moeen said.
The left-handed elegant batsman, however, affirmed that he
was “not fazed whatsoever” about these as it was “nothing serious.”
Cricket Australia, though, has a zero-tolerance policy
against anything that goes against a race or a culture and have done their best
in order to crackdown such events and punish the offenders.
In their most recent cases, a fan made an offensive message against
Hashim Amla and displayed it on the fence during last summer’s Hobart Test. The
South African then reported it to the officials and CA and police took instant
action, resulting in the guilty getting caught via the help of CCTV footage.
"Our message to any fan attending a match is that if
you display anti-social behaviour you will be removed and risk being banned
from any cricket match across Australia, along with police action," a CA
spokesperson said on Saturday.
"We encourage anybody who may witness this at one of
our matches to report the matter to security or a member of staff
immediately."
Given that Cricket Australia have a very good system to catch and filter out offenders, it wouldn’t be of and surprise should they catch him – and for the sake of cricket, we hope that they do.
Picture Courtesy : Getty Images
