'There's been casual racism in cricket teams growing up'

by Lisa Sthalekar • Last updated on Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 08:43 AM

The former Aussie cricketer-turned-commentator, who is of Indian origin, opens up on the racism she's faced over the years in the sport © AFP

It wasn't particularly easy for Lisa Sthalekar, of Indian origin, to grow up in Australia. It wasn't that tough either with her being as good at cricket as she was. That didn't, however, take away the fact that Lisa was different from the everyday white Australian and had faced her fair share of hardships while making a name for herself on the world stage.

There was one time where... I don't even know the circumstances, but my teammates were trying to pin me down and put a bindi(worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women)on my forehead with a permanent marker (because I was Indian). And I was fighting that off because it pissed me off.

There's been casual racism within cricket teams regularly growing up. People would say, 'You need to carry the bags, Lisa'... things like that over the years. Obviously things changed in the environment and what was acceptable changed, but I've had a few incidents that haven't been great. But I think if you're a sportsperson you tend to have a thicker skin because you're constantly getting judged or critiqued or the banter on the field. Maybe that allowed me to cope.

And while the 'carry the bags' jibe did not bother her overtly, she realised that it forced her to try and fit in at times...

No, I'd tell them to f*** off basically. It was a bit of a joke... To be honest, some of the times to cope with it, I said it as well. You try and get in with a joke before the joke is made out of you, so to speak.

But apart from the casual racism on the field, the brunt of it was faced by Lisa's sister, Caprini, who had it a lot worse growing up.

I know my sister had a lot of issues growing up in Australia. She is from Bangalore and is a lot darker. She was probably the only one within her school that was that dark and wore glasses... she didn't have the luck of the draw in that sense. She had to actually move schools because she was getting bullied, but those things unfortunately happen. But both me and my sister have always had an open, honest relationship with our parents. That enabled us to move on and get on with things. Like I said, for me, it wasn't as bad as it was for my sister. Sport covered over things for me that were there for others.

It began in kindergarten for her. While Sthalekar didn't believe she was different from the people around her, there were times where it was brought to her notice.

There was probably one incident at school. I would've been in kindergarten and to be honest, I can't remember what some older kid said, bit I remember someone next to me complained to the teacher about it. That was probably the first time I had come across racism. I knew it was a racist comment, but for the life of me I can't remember! But that was the first time. I think for me, because I was okay at sport, the prejudice that may have existed, disappeared because people were happy to have me on their team.

I always thought... and this is where casual racism comes in, but I always thought I was white and I tanned really well. I never felt different. I felt like an Australian. I never felt like I was different to any of my teammates. When it was pointed out to me that I was different, I thought to myself...I don't feel different, I don't act differently, do I?

Probably some of the first times that I started to feel I was different was when I toured India. When I would walk on the street, everyone gets hounded, but I didn't get hounded (laughs). I can go to the markets and nobody is trying to haggle with me... I just fit in.

The other time I noticed was when we had some family friends over from England. We went to the shopping centre and they were of Indian origin. The four of us girls were walking around and the four of us were Indian and I noticed people were looking... I wondered why they were looking. This shopping centre was on the northern beach here, so it was very blonde hair, white skin, that kind of thing... I noticed they were looking, and I wondered why and then figured it out - there were four Indian girls walking around. So, yeah, like I said, compared to a lot of people, even my sister, I had it a lot better, but there were still incidents that happened along the way.

None of these have come in her broadcasting career so far

I don't believe so because what they tend to do with most broadcast teams is just from a commentary panel there is diversity now; male and female, people from different countries as well, their perspective of the match. And then if you dig a little bit deeper, if you look at the 100-odd people who are working behind the scenes to make sure the pictures, sounds, and everything is working, that is a broad group of multi-cultural people coming together - South African, Indian, English, Singaporean, Australian, Americans, you name it... we're all in one melting pot trying to give you guys the broadcast. I've never felt it in the broadcast world, but I'm sure there would be some people who would have some examples of what it was like earlier.

And there's hope that the world outside now change too

What we're seeing now is that there is racism unfortunately everywhere; everywhere we go. And probably in this country than anything, there is an acceptance of diversity and multi-cultural, but there is casual racism. And that I think is changing. People are now just starting to look within probably a little bit more and how they conduct themselves. It is everywhere on our screens and you go 'hang on, what do I say...I probably shouldn't say this or I probably shouldn't make this joke'. So I hope that what it's done is enlightened everyone to just look within first and foremost before pointing fingers at everyone else.

As told to Kritika Naidu

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'There's been casual racism in cricket teams growing up'

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