Yuvraj Singh maafi maango (#युवराज_सिंह_माफी_मांगो) has been trending on Twitter for a while now as fans want ex-cricketer to apologise for his remark on Yuzvendra Chahal.  Yuvraj Singh had used a derogatory term ‘Bhangi’ to refer to Yuzvendra Chahal during an Instagram Live chat session with Rohit Sharma. Both of the so-called upper caste players are seen laughing at that. Time and again such derogatory remarks are uttered by so-called upper castes without any consequence. Yuvraj Singh not only should apologise but legal action as well should be taken against him for demeaning Valmiki community.

Ravindra Jadeja time and again has been posting about being proud of the Rajput clan and blah blah… If we look at the Indian cricket team, there is a bigger issue of caste dominance of Brahmins in it. When Jadeja every other day post on proud Rajput on social media or when such words as Yuvraj said are uttered in closed or even open circles, there is a bigger issue here at play. When the population of Brahmins is around 4% but they 70-80% representation in Indian Cricket, it is a problem.

BCCI which is nothing but Brahmins Control Cricket in India has worked to maintain Brahminical hegemony over the game. In fact, many authors have argued that Cricket became popular in India because it maintains untouchability. Players in Cricket hardly come in touch with each other and Brahmins dominated it for the same reason keeping the notion of purity and impurity alive. While in other games such as in hockey or football, where there is so much contact no Brahmin preferred to play. At the same time, for the same reasons, there has not been any investments in other sports because in other sports there are fewer Brahmins.

Remember Vinod Kambli? He had said that he always felt discriminated because of his caste and colour by the cricket board. So, Yuvraj saying casteist slur should not surprise you.

When you compare Vinod Kambli with Brahmin Sachin, Kambli was much better than Sachin in playing but he was thrown out of cricket because of his lower caste.

Score on first 14 innings of

Sachin – 15, 59, 8, 41, 35, 57, 0, 24, 88, 5, 10, 27, 68

Vinod Kambli – 16,18 (not out), 59, 224, 227, 125, 4, 120, 5, 82, 57

In 17 test matches that Dalit Vinod Kambli played, he scored 1084 runs and Brahmin Sachin scored 956 runs.

Look at the first 3 years of test matches the career of both the players in terms of avg. score –

Brahmin Sachin = 32.25

Dalit Vinod Kambli = 54.20

Even after having a much higher average score, Vinod Kambli was thrown out of the game by Brahminical board. Brahmin Sachin scored his 1st century in 15th match and by that time Dalit Vinod Kambli had scored 2 double centuries and 2 centuries but still, he was thrown out of the game. Why? What merit and skills do these Brahmins talk about every day? There has hardly been any player coming from lower castes as caste bias plays in cricket. The only thing that you need to play cricket is Janeu!

It’s a high time to implement representation policies and give chance to Dalits and minority communities in Cricket along with other games. Why is BCCI afraid to implement a quota system for all communities as South Africa has done? Diversity improves performance and it has been proven time and again in various fields.

We must focus on the bigger issue of caste in cricket, in sports, and demand diversity through a representative system. Otherwise, cases like Yuvraj or Jadeja would continue forever and ever. Finally, once again, while saying these things, Yuvraj Singh must apologise and should be punished for the derogatory remarks.

Author – Pardeep Attri