Legendary Proteas spin bowler Paul Adams says he was called “Brown Sh!t” by his national teammates from 1998 onwards.
Speaking at the social justice and nation building hearings yesterday, Gogga, as he’s known, says: “My wife – who was my girlfriend then – always used to ask me why they would call you that name.
“I used to just shrug it off. I was called ‘Brown Sh!t’ when I was playing.
“It often used to be a song that used to happen when we won a game and were in fines meetings. They used to sing ‘Brown Sh!t in the ring, tra-la-la-la-la’.
“When you play for your country you go along with it, you brush it off. [But] it’s blatantly racism.”
The Grassy Park hero, 44, who played 45 Tests and 24 ODIs for the national team between 1995 and 2004, reveals he was also unhappy with the way he was portrayed in the media, with his bowling action once described as “stealing hubcaps off moving cars.”
He asks: “I actually found it derogatory. Was it because I was born on the Cape flats?”.
The current Border coach reveals that now-national team coach and then-wicketkeeper Mark Boucher was one of the players who called him ‘Brown Sh!t’, and also recalls an incident that took place years later between him and fellow national team player Daryll Cullinan.
He recalls: “It was the Cobras versus the Titans 10-13 March, 2005.
“It was Cullinan’s final First-Class match.
“I was standing on the boundary, he got out after he got 100. “He decided to walk around the boundary, came up to me and looked me straight in the face and told me: ‘Your gravy train has ended’ and added ‘You are a sh!t spinner’.
“He was implying, from my point of view, that I only played for the country because of the colour of my skin.
“He was for many cricketers in this country an icon, after that event I lost all respect for him.
“I wonder if that kind of thought was always in the back of his mind.”
Cricket South Africa’s hearings conclude today.