Sri Lankan players may feel backlash in Australia

Racism row which began in India

By Manoj Vatsyayana

CRICKET: NEW DELHI, Oct 20, - A racism row refuses to go away in India where fans repeatedly taunted Australia's only black player, tarnishing the country's sporting image.

Andrew Symonds was subjected to monkey chants from the crowd during the fifth game of seven in the India-Australia one-day series and booed and mocked in the final game in Mumbai on Wednesday.

A front-page picture in Friday's Hindustan Times caught a section of the Mumbai crowd where at least two men appeared to be making monkey gestures.

"The ugly Indian?" asked the accompanying headline. The daily's sports page appealed to Indian fair play: "C'mon Mumbai, this isn't us," pleaded a major story.

Fears of retaliatory behaviour in Australia are mounting.

"There is talk of 'paying the effing Indians back in the same coin' and 'getting one back for Symmo (Symonds)'," it noted.Sri Lankan players have reportedly expressed worries they could be among the first to feel the backlash when they arrive Down Under this month for a two-Test series.

The series will also see the return of ace off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who has often expressed his unhappiness at Australian fans' comments over his controversial bowling action.

The Sri Lankan is just nine short of breaking retired Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne's Test world record of 708 wickets.

The Australians, and especially Symonds, have tried to keep the racism row low key in India.

"I am not disappointed it happened, but I heard people refused it happened ... and that's disappointing," Symonds admitted after the sixth one-dayer at Nagpur, where he smashed an unbeaten century.

AFP