- Indigenous allrounder opened up his experiences
- CA ‘deeply disappointed’ by ‘uneducated’ internet trolls
Dan Christian has detailed his experiences of racism in the first episode of CA’s new series Cricket Connecting Country.
Photograph: Luke Hemer/Getty Images
Cricket Australia has called out a “blatantly racist” social-media attack on Dan Christian, which came in response to the Indigenous allrounder opening up about casual racism in his sport.
Christian, a proud Wiradjuri man who represented Australia in 35 limited-overs games and captained an Aboriginal XI, detailed his experiences in the first episode of CA’s new series Cricket Connecting Country.
Christian recalled how he had been the subject of throwaway lines and jokes about “the colour of my skin and the fact that I don’t look Aboriginal or whatever that means”.
Administrators at the governing body were disgusted that one user on Twitter, whose identity is now being investigated, responded to the session by questioning Christian’s Aboriginality.
“We are deeply disappointed to see blatantly racist and uneducated comments in the aftermath of Cricket Connecting Country’s premiere,” the organisation posted.
“Whilst we have chosen not to name the publisher of these comments publicly, we want to strongly reinforce that any form of racism or discrimination has no place in cricket, sport or wider society.
“Comments like these demonstrate just how far we still have to go.”
Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes, who are in Brisbane preparing for Australia’s limited-overs series against New Zealand, also called out the racist message on Twitter.
“This sort of stuff is the very reason that these conversations need to keep happening….. keep up the good work @danchristian54,” Healy posted.
CA has produced the Cricket Connecting Country series partly in an attempt to help address past instances of racism in the sport.
“It’s just something that comes with a lack of education and an ignorance. I don’t think a lot of people say it with any kind of malice,” Christian said in the first episode.
“When all the Black Lives Matter stuff came out in the last couple of months, one of the things I related to the most was Meyne Wyatt’s monologue on Q and A.
“He talks about being asked that question and his comment back to whoever asked it was ‘well what part am I? Is it my foot, is it my arm, is it my leg?’.
“I’ve received a lot of messages over the past few months from people I’ve played with and against that have said ’sorry if I’ve ever said anything to you that you’ve been offended by’ … it’s been a wonderful thing.”