What happened in Sydney was completely wrong: Rahane on Siraj's racism incident

The Border-Gavaskar trophy 2020-21 will always be remembered for India's finest ever comeback in a bilateral test series. India were humiliated by the infamous 36-all out in Adelaide but fought hard to register a much-needed win in Melbourne. 

Moreover, they became the first team to defeat Australia in Brisbane in 32 years despite being devoid of the services of some of their first-choice players, which made the tour a memorable one for the Indian team as well as its passionate fans.  

Apart from the unavailability of some key players, another thing that challenged the Indian team's morale during that series was the racial abuse by the Australian fans towards the Indian players during the Sydney Test. 

The SCG crowd continuously passed derogatory remarks on some of the Indian players, particularly Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, on the third day of the test, which was informed to the match officials after the day's play. 

However, the crowd carried on this awful act in the first session of the fourth day, which was conveyed to the two on-field umpires, Paul Reiffel and Paul Wilson, by the Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane. 

Addressing the media during the launch of a documentary based on that series titled 'Bandon mein tha dum', Rahane revealed that he approached the umpires in the strictest possible manner to resolve the issue in a quick time after he was informed about the incident by Siraj. 

As the veteran Indian batsman put it, he asked the umpires to take appropriate actions against the abusers, failing which the Indian team would leave the field. 

"When Siraj again came to me [on the fourth day, after being abused the day before], I told the umpires that [they] need to take action, and we won't play till then," Rahane said. 

Continuing, the former Indian vice-captain revealed that the umpires' response was discouraging as they told the Indian players to make their way into the dressing room if they wanted to. Still, the Indian players kept forcing the umpires to dispatch the disturbing elements out of the stands, a move that eventually went in favour of the visitors. The Mumbai-born batter stressed that they needed to take a stand for one of their colleagues, as he was a victim of the crowd's wrongdoing. 

"The umpires said that you can't stall the game and can walk out if you want. We said that we are here to play and not sit in the dressing room and insisted on getting the abusers out of the ground," Rahane said. "It was important to support our colleague given the situation he had been through. What happened in Sydney was completely wrong", the 33-year-old concluded.