English Cricketer Apologised To Cheteshwar Pujara For “Steve” Nicknam: The latest events of racism have left the cricket fraternity in shock. Recently, an ugly controversy was stirred after Azeem Rafiq spoke in the parliament about his experiences while playing for Yorkshire, where he revealed how he lost his career to racism among other disheartening details.
He also revealed how everyone called Pujara ‘Steve’ and ‘Kevin’ was something Gary used for people of color in a derogatory manner.
Amidst the controversy, a video dated 2018 featuring Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara resurfaced on social media, where the test specialist of India can be seen revealing how he was called Steve during his time at the Yorkshire club as the players found it difficult to pronounce his first name.
“I’d prefer Cheteshwar but it’s difficult to pronounce so the guys have come up with ‘Steve’,” Pujara told cricket.com.au about his “nickname” before adding, “Personally, I would prefer Cheteshwar. I think it was Jack Brooks who started off with this. He could not pronounce my first name so he was asking me what nickname do I have. I said I don’t have any and so they said, ‘we will start calling you Steve’,” he added.
As per the reports, it was Jack Brooks who had nicknamed Pujara ‘Steve’ during his time at the Yorkshire club. Not just this, he also used the word “n***o” while speaking to English pacer Tymal Mills and Stewart Laudat.
Now in the latest turn of events, Jack Brooks has released a statement, where he sought an apology for his behavior and said that is deeply regretting the usage of the same term.
“I acknowledge that the language used in two tweets I made in 2012 was unacceptable and I deeply regret using it. I unreservedly apologize for any offense caused to anybody who may have seen these tweets,” said Brooks as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Brooks further revealed that the nickname ‘Steve’ was given to some people having difficult names to pronounce, regardless of creed or race. He said.
“With reference to my naming in Azeem Rafiq’s statement to MPs this week, the use of the name ‘Steve’ related to some people having difficult names to pronounce. When this has occurred in the past in a dressing room environment, it has been commonplace to give nicknames, regardless of creed or race. I admit to having used it in this context and now accept that it was disrespectful and wrong to do so.
He added:
“I have reached out and apologized to Cheteshwar for any offense that I have caused him or his family. At the time I didn’t recognize this as racist behavior, but I can now see that it was not acceptable,”
