“They were crying and admitted that they did abuse the players”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Two spectators were detained at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong for racially abusing a South African player on the second day of the first Test on Wednesday.

However, they were both released by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) security approximately two hours later since they were minors and admitted that what they had done was wrong.

“We are aware of such an incident,” BCB security committee member-secretary Mohammad Ali said. “They were two minors, around 10 or 11-year olds. They saw one or two South Africa players and made some racial comments. We were informed by the match referee and when I went there, the police had already detained them. But we couldn’t really arrest them or take any more action. They were crying and admitted that they did abuse the players.”

A South African team spokesperson confirmed that the team was aware of the incident, but were happy to let it be “handled by the match officials and venue security”.

The incident became public knowledge when the stadium’s PA system read out the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-racism code numerous times during the lunch break and a couple more times throughout the remainder of the day.

“Several announcements were made to raise awareness among the fans and inform them about the consequence of any kind of abuse,” venue manager Fazle Bari said. “After that, not one has repeated it.”