Former Indian pacer, Dodda Ganesh has revealed he faced significant amount of racism during his career playing days but that they did not stop him from playing for the country and his state team, Karnataka. Dodda Ganesh, who played 4 Tests and an ODI for India after making his debut in 1997, said Abhinav Mukund’s revelation about racism from a couple of years ago gave him the confidence in talking about what he went through during his playing days.

Dodda Ganesh went on to play more than 100 Ranji Trophy matches for Karnataka and picked up 365 wickets and scored 2023 runs. Ganesh, 46, retired from competitive cricket in 2007 and went on to take up coaching stints. Tweeting about the racism, Ganesh wrote: “This story of @mukundabhinav reminded me of the racial jibes I went through in my playing days. Only an Indian legend was witness to it. It only made me strong & didn’t deter me from playing for Ind & ovr 100 mts for Karnataka.”

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Ganesh said he wasn’t aware of the racism back then and that he wishes no Indian go through ‘such ordeal’ in the future.

Former pacer further added, “Well TBH, I didn’t even know the seriousness of racism back then in the 90s. And there was no platform to express it as well. Hope no Indian in the future goes through such ordeal.”

This story of @mukundabhinav, reminded me of the racial jibes I went through in my playing days. Only an Indian legend was witness to it. It only made me strong & didn’t deter me from playing for Ind & ovr 100 mts for Karnataka @StarSportsKan
ಕಪ್ಪಗಿರೋರು ಮನುಷ್ಯರೇ. ಮೊದಲು ಮಾನವರಾಗಿ. pic.twitter.com/ZV8c8YPmpM

— Dodda Ganesh | ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ (@doddaganesha) June 3, 2020

The story Ganesh is referring to is Mukund’s revelation of the racism that he had to endure during various stages of his career. Mukund, in fact, had clarified that the post wasn’t about his teammates but that it was targeting at people who were racist.

Mukund had written, “With the rise of social media, it has gone to a magnitude that I see people hurling abuses left, right and centre at something I have absolutely no control over. Fair isn’t the only lovely or handsome guys.” On Wednesday, Mukund said people should be allowed to talk about their experiences of discrimination whenever they want and it has nothing to do with ‘timing’.

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Mukund responded to a journalist who had asked why he and Ganesh had never expressed about racism earlier.

The southpaw wrote: “Sir with all due respect I think people should be allowed to talk whenever they are comfortable doing so, it’s not about the timing according to me. In any case, I spoke about this in the middle of a test series in Srilanka.”