Alviro Petersen on racism in cricket: 'Black players were instructed to abuse opposition black players'

Former Proteas batsman Alviro Petersen has lifted the lid on racial issues in cricket and in the national team.

Petersen, who is one of the 31 prominent current and former cricket players to show support for Lungi Ngidi, claimed black players in the team were instructed to “abuse” opposition black players.

His claims come after former Proteas player Makhaya Ntini weighed in last week about racism in the sport. In the past few weeks, black players have been sharing their stories about racism in sport and standing in solidarity with Ngidi after he called for support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Ngidi recalled how, at the start of his career, he was told to “come hard” towards opposition black players because they are “angry and arrogant”. 

He said black players were instructed to “abuse” opposition black players, and were even given the material to do so.

“I believe the oppressor and racists now call this 'black on black violence'. They forget they created that, and some fell for it,” said Petersen.

He said he was faced with questions about merit and the issue of skin colour when he joined county cricket in England in 2011.

Petersen said racism was deeply rooted in sport and well disguised.

He said open, honest and difficult discussions about racism in sport needed to be had, and the right people needed to be present when this was discussed.

He concluded his thread by saying: “I have always been hard on black players I captained to go above and beyond to perform.”

TimesLIVE made several attempts for comment from Cricket SA but they had not responded at the time of publishing the story.