'They were after my life': Aakash Chopra recalls being racially abused in England

Former Indian batsman Aakash Chopra recently talked about how two players from South Africa racially abused him when he was playing in an English cricket league. Although the cricketer-turned-commentator did not name the two players, he stated that both of them referred to him as 'Paki.'

In his latest IGTV video, Aakash Chopra spoke about the issue of racism in cricket, and in the process supported claims made by Darren Sammy, Chris Gayle, DJ Bravo, and Irfan Pathan about how the racism has dented cricket.

They were constantly calling me Paki: Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra has quickly become one of the most popular cricket experts

Through his IGTV video, Aakash Chopra opined that all cricketers have faced racism at one point in their careers. He recalled the days when he was a part of an English cricket league, where two South African players were after his lives.

"We (cricketers) at one point or the other, have been victims of racism. I remember when I used to play league cricket in England, there were two South African is one of the opposition teams, and both of them really went on an abusive spree. Even when I was at the non-striker's end, they were after my life. They were constantly calling me Paki," Aakash Chopra said.

Aakash Chopra clarified that Paki did not mean someone from Pakistan, but it was a racial slur used in England to abuse the brown-skinned people. He even mentioned that his teammates supported him. However, the two South Africans did not stop racial abuses.

Further, the right-handed batsman discussed how racism is an issue that is prevalent across the globe as he looked back at an incident from a match between India and Australia where Andrew Symonds was also subject to racist chants.

It will be intriguing to see if ICC takes any step in this direction, with multiple cricketers bringing up cases of racial abuse in the sport.