New Zealand Cricket (NZC)
has lodged a complaint with Tauranga police asking it to investigate the
incident of racial abuse directed at England cricketer Jofra Archer during
the first Test at the Bay Oval.
In
a series of tweets, Archer had alleged of racial abused directed towards him by
an unidentified spectator last week.
Archer
wrote, “disturbing hearing racial insults today whilst battling to help save my
team, the crowd was been amazing this week except for that one guy.”
NZC
chief executive David White said despite no conclusive evidence to identify the
person responsible for the abuse, there’s enough material to lodge a police
complaint. “What happened to Jofra was reprehensible and has led to a general
upscaling of security around the area of racial abuse at all our international
venues,” White said. “Should the person responsible ever reoffend, we believe
we have enough information to link him to the Bay Oval incident.”
In a media
release, NZC said, “Information gathered from an inquiry which included
studying CCTV footage, listening to audio, interviewing bystanders and
obtaining material on social media has been incorporated in the complaint.”
White
said if the perpetrator is identified, they will seek a lengthy ban for from
all its international venue.
In
a column, Archer had said he has moved on from the incident even though it was
a ‘real shame’.
“The
first thing I want to say about what happened towards the end of the test at
Mount Maunganui is that I’m over it,” Archer wrote in a column in Britain’s Daily
Mail. “I’ve left what happened at the ground and I’ve moved on. I
should also say it was just one person who was shouting stuff. But I found the
incident a real shame.”
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