English cricketer Brooks apologises to Cheteshwar Pujara for racist nickname at Yorkshire

Somerset cricketer Jack Brooks has issued an apology to Indian cricketer Cheteswar Pujara for calling him with racist nickname 'Steve' during his time at Yorkshire playing county cricket. Brooks has also apologized for his tweets with racist remarks, that he posted back in 2012.

Earlier in the week, Brooks' name came up in Azeem Rafiq's testimony given to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport select committee, where Rafiq said that the practice of calling Pujara with the nickname, 'Steve' was started by Jack Brooks.

As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, while apologizing to Pujara, Brooks was quoted as saying that 'Steve' was used as a nickname for some people whose names were difficult to pronounce. He further said that the dressing room was a common place to have nicknames for players, regardless of their race. 

Admitting that he called Pujara with the name, Brooks said that he used it in the abovementioned context, which he now accepts was both disrespectful and wrong. He added that he has reached out to Pujara in order to apologize to him for the offense he has caused to the Indian cricketer and his family. Brooks said that he didn't recognize it was a racist behavior.

Jack Brooks started the practice of calling Pujara 'Steve'

Brooks added that he will ensure his actions and language never get into question ever again and elucidated that he gives an unequivocal apology to anybody he has offended by his actions. Brooks was reprimanded by his current county team Somerset, who noticed the racist tweets by the 37-year-old.

Earlier in the week, Azeem Rafiq revealed that Cheteswar Pujara was called with the racist name 'Steve' as English players found it difficult to pronounce names of Asian cricketers. Adding that the practice of calling Pujara as 'Steve' was started by Brooks, Rafiq in his testimony said that Brooks' action led to other English players calling people of colour by the same name.

Pujara, during an interview in 2018, confirmed that he was called 'Steve' during his time at Yorkshire. The Indian cricketer said that his Yorkshire teammates called him with the nickname as he could not convince them to call him by his first name.

(Image: AP)