‘Mohammed Siraj had tears in his eyes’: Tim Paine recalls racism incident in Sydney

A young Indian team were spectacular in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2021. Marred with injuries, new players kept coming in and kept performing. Despite being inexperienced, these young players stood up to the Australian team and clinched the series with an emphatic run chase in Brisbane.

One of the finds of the series for India was Mohammed Siraj. The young Hyderabad quick led the attack in Brisbane and picked up a 5-wicket haul. However, controversy broke out when he was racially abused in the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Talking about the incident, Australia’s captain at the time, Tim Paine said that he saw how devastated Siraj was on the field and he even saw tears rolling down.

“I still remember walking up to Siraj, he actually had tears in his eyes and tears rolling down his cheeks. So it obviously really affected him and cut him really deep. This is a kid, who has just gone through the death of his father. And then to have that I just thought was uncalled for,” said Paine on the documentary Bandon mein tha dum.

Paine went on to add that he was disappointed with the way the crowd behaved during the Sydney Test and said it was not how the public behave when teams tour Australia. “Traditionally in Australia we have been pretty good at how we treat our visiting cricketing teams. So to see it happen again was disappointing,” he added.

Siraj, who was a consistent performer for India A as well as in the domestic circuit, finished as India’s India’s leading wicket-taker in the series with 13 wickets from three matches. He took his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket at Gabba as India went on breach fortress Gabba on the final day to clinch the series 2-1.

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