Melbourne: India captain Anil Kumble and his teammates on Monday helped Cricket Australia’s security officials in compiling a list of Hindi words regarded racist.
Peter Young, anti-racism officer for Cricket Australia (CA), said he expected a well-behaved 90,000-strong crowd in the series opener at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 26, but warned racial abuse, whether in Hindi or English, would result in immediate ejection.
Young said he and other security officials met Kumble, to find out which Hindi words or taunts could be racist to them. "We wanted to know what terms or expressions in their language would be considered offensive or racist," he said.
Young said CA had not left any stone unturned in its effort to weed out the menace and it would brook no such nonsense.
"Undercover police, who will be in the crowd at the MCG for the Boxing Day Test, will then be told what phrases to listen for. "If they hear those phrases considered to be racist or offensive, then those responsible will be ejected from the ground. They face life bans from ever re-entering the ground."
"It is a real celebration of cricket and we expect the crowd to be in a great mood as they always are at the Boxing Day Test," he said.
Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist has thrown his weight behind CA and said offenders should not be shown any mercy.
"If those are the rules, those are the rules, and we are very supportive of anything stamping out racism in Australia and around the world," Gilchrist was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.
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