A participant referred to as me a “f***ing monkey”: Chambers remembers racist abuse in county cricket

As the controversy surrounding the Yorkshire racism case storms on, Maurice Chambers, a Jamaican-born seamer has opened up concerning the racist abuse he confronted whereas enjoying for Essex in addition to Northamptonshire.
Talking to The Cricketer, Chambers mentioned he was referred to as a “f***ing monkey” by certainly one of his colleagues. He additionally revealed {that a} senior member of the teaching employees learn out racist jokes within the dressing room. It acquired so dangerous that Chambers used to go dwelling and cry after matches.
“We had a team night out in Chelmsford,” Chambers informed The Cricketer. “The different participant acquired fairly drunk. When I acquired dwelling, he threw a banana down the steps and mentioned: ‘Climb for it, you f***ing monkey.’
“I discussed the incident to my mum and she or he reported it. The different participant was pressured to apologise to me however I nonetheless needed to stay with him for some time longer.
“Apart from that time, I never reported anything. I was always worried about being seen as a troublemaker. I didn’t want to do anything to either risk a new contract or isolating myself further.”

In one other incident, Chambers remembers fumbling a ball throughout fielding practise. Another participant, who was additionally of African-Caribbean heritage, fumbled the following ball, resulting in the coach shouting: ‘Is this a black thing?’
“Several of the other players laughed,” Chambers mentioned. “We didn’t discover it humorous in any respect.
“The same coach used to read out racist jokes on his phone in the dressing room. It would have been nice if some of my teammates had intervened to say ‘this isn’t right’, but it never happened,” Chambers informed The Cricketer.
“On several other occasions, a senior player would ask me if I wanted a banana. He would do it with a sly smile, like he was trying to rile me. When I became upset, he would turn to the coach and say ‘hey, I’m only offering him some fruit.’ The coach would laugh. It was humiliating. It was isolating. I never told anyone, but I would go home at the end of the day and cry. It made me very unhappy,” he mentioned.
Things weren’t a lot better in Northamptonshire the place he moved after a brief stint at Warwickshire.
“We were travelling to an away game once and I was sitting three or four rows from the back of the bus,” Chambers remembers. “There was a man on the backseat of the coach listening to rap music on headphones. He was singing alongside to the phrases and it included repeated use of the ‘N’ phrase.
“He should have seen me him, as a result of he requested: ‘You’re okay with this, aren’t you mate?’
“I didn’t reply. I simply put my headphones again on.
“At that stage he came closer and said to me: ‘You guys use it in American music. I’m just singing along.’ ‘We’re not in America,’ I replied. He stopped singing along,” he informed The Cricketer.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has mentioned it’s “appalled” by recent racism claims made by former Essex participant Maurice Chambers and has vowed to research the matter alongside the opposite allegations on the membership.

#Breaking The England and Wales Cricket Board has mentioned it’s “appalled” by recent racism claims made by former Essex participant Maurice Chambers and has vowed to research the matter alongside the opposite allegations on the membership pic.twitter.com/UyhTQGUNWz
— PA Sport (@pasport) November 15, 2021