Australia v India: Indian cricket fans respond to Mohammed Siraj ‘grub’ crowd slur

Indian fans who attended day one at the Gabba say the atmosphere was more welcoming than Sydney, responding to the latest slur against fast bowler Mohammed Siraj.

India's paceman Mohammed Siraj adjusts his glasses on day one of the fourth cricket Test match between Australia and India at the Gabba in Brisbane on January 15, 2021. (Photo by Patrick HAMILTON / AFP) / —IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE —

Any abuse from the Gabba crowd has fallen on deaf ears with Mohammed Siraj telling teammates he did not hear any derogatory remarks as India opted against filing a complaint.

News Corp has confirmed that BCCI officials told Cricket Australia’s head of integrity and security Sean Carroll on Friday night that they had no issue with the Brisbane crowd after spending 87 overs in the field on day one.

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A video emerged of a spectator calling Siraj a “grub” in Brisbane although, unlike last week’s unsavoury episodes at the SCG, the insult did not upset Team India.

Indian supporter Rajul Sharma, who leads Fans India — a supporter group with 25,000 global members — said parts of the crowd consciously tried to make the visitors feel welcome in Brisbane.

“I’ve seen the video that was posted by one of the journos, and that doesn’t look like a group was abusing (Siraj),” he told News Corp from the Gabba on Saturday.

“It looks more like an individual making a comment, which was wrong.

“But where I was sitting the Australian fans were cheering for Indian players, especially for Siraj.

“They were singing songs for him, I heard the whole stand say, ‘Welcome to Brisbane’ and clapping for him and asking him to give a wave.

The Darth Vaders look on from the Gabba crowd, whose behaviour has been praised by Indian fans.

“Every time he’d give a wave back to the crowd there was a big cheer for him.

“Siraj and other Indian fielders who were fielding in front of our bay were pretty happy.

“They were not unhappy in terms of people saying anything bad to them.

“I could see the crowd here in Brisbane deliberately trying to make them feel welcome and making a point that whatever happened in Sydney was a once-off thing, it’s not what Australian crowds do to opposition.

“I was surprised to see it reported that it was a repeat of Sydney.

“It wasn’t a repeat of Sydney, what we’ve seen yesterday was an Australian crowd greeting them and making them feel at home.”

Fans India has attended every limited overs game and Test match this summer, and reported disappointing crowd behaviour at the SCG last week.

But the group is adamant that was not repeated at day one in Brisbane.

Indian quick Mohammed Siraj says he didn’t hear reported crowd slurs on day one in Brisbane.

They have 20 fans seated together at the Gabba, which is the maximum group booking due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“What we witnessed yesterday was pleasant to see and refreshing to see after Sydney and the reports were very surprising,” Rajul Sharma said.

“We got reports from our Sydney members – it was bad, it was absolutely bad.

“But that’s not the case at Gabba so far. After the game they came to our fan group and said, ‘How’s it going? You guys are doing a great job, your team is doing well’, and I could see they were deliberately trying to even make us feel welcome.”

Cricket Australia reinforced its zero tolerance stance on crowd abuse last week and is investigating complaints made by Siraj that on Sunday resulted in play stopping for about 10 minutes.

Players from both camps have passionately spoken out about the urgent need to stamp out crowd abuse.

The issue remains a hot topic worldwide however after early investigations CA officials are content there is little substance to claims that the Gabba crowd overstepped the mark.