Former South Africa spinner Paul Adams recalls racial discrimination; blames Mark Boucher and other teammates

Former South African spinner Paul Adams has dropped bombshells related to racial discrimination, including being called ‘brown s***’ by his teammates throughout his playing career.

Speaking at Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings, Adams recounted how he was treated differently, and some of his fellow players used to sing a derogatory song during the post-match celebrations.

“I was called brown s*** when I was playing. It often used to be a song when we won a game, and we were in fines’ meetings. They would sing, ‘brown s*** in the ring, tra la la la laa,'” said Adams.

Adams revealed that current South Africa coach Mark Boucher was one of the players who would use that slur. The left-arm spinner explained how his wife, who was then his girlfriend, made him realise that it wasn’t right and he shouldn’t take such things in a light manner.

“I never addressed it with him. Mark was just one of the guys (who called me that)… it only came back to me afterwards. I was caught up in the fun of being alone in the team and not (wanting) to ruffle any feathers. For me, when I thought about it, and my wife kept telling me, ‘why do they call you that?’ then I realised it wasn’t right,” the 44-year-old added.

The Cape Town cricketer said he has respect for Boucher, but he should come forward and apologise for passing those racial remarks. Adams expressed the mentality needs to be changed, and everyone should be treated equally.

“They wouldn’t call a white player ‘white shit,’ or anything like that; it was ‘brown shit. I’m just highlighting that it should never happen, and if we take this forward in the right way, we will have a lot more respect for each other. Maybe he (Boucher) should come and say sorry. Maybe that is all that needs to happen. It is something that should not be brushed under the carpet. We should air it; if we want our teams within Cricket SA to have the right ethics, the right mentality, the right respect for one another, we should air these things,” Adams added further.

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