SYDNEY: Australian newspapers said on Thursday that all-rounder Andrew Symonds continued to suffer racist abuse from Indian spectators, publishing a photograph they said proved the allegation.
Symonds, the only black player in the Australian team, has complained he was subject to chants like the sound of a monkey grunting during his team's one-day international against India in Vadodara earlier this month.
He was also booed by some of the 40,000-strong crowd during the seventh and final game in Mumbai on Wednesday, prompting Cricket Australia to make a report to match referee Chris Broad.
Melbourne's 'Herald-Sun' newspaper and the Sydney Morning Herald published a photograph of the Mumbai crowd which appeared to show some spectators making monkey gestures with their arms.
The Herald said the photograph was the first evidence backing Symonds's earlier claims, calling for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take the issue seriously.
"A racist threat has weaved its way through the latter stages of this series and any further attempts by the BCCI to bury its head in the sand will presumably be met with scorn by the International Cricket Council," it said.
The Australian newspaper dismissed a suggestion from Vadodara's police chief that the crowds were actually praying to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman, rather than seeking to racially abuse Symonds.
"Indian denials of the racist incident contain a number of lines of thought ranging from ridiculous to ignorant," the newspaper said, adding that the Hanuman suggestions 'take the banana.'
The Indian and Australian cricket boards on Wednesday issued a joint statement strongly condemning racism of any kind in the game.
It said witnesses to poor crowd behaviour must draw the attention of the authorities immediately so that it can be addressed there and then, rather than being reviewed via media reports.
The ICC has demanded an explanation from the BCCI over the Vadodara incident.
