Cricket Australia has apologised after sending a tweet of four Sikh men dressed as Teletubbies as the second Ashes Test got underway in Adelaide today.
The sport’s governing body posted a picture of four Sikh men dressed as Teletubbies with the question “Will the real Monty Panesar please stand up? #Ashes”.
There was an immediate backlash from other users of the social network who labelled the tweet racist and inappropriate.
“I think you forgot to apply the self-censoring filter to that photograph. Horrendous,” Kate C replied.
“Words do fail me,” another user, James H Cross tweeted.
“Give it an hour and they’ll be tweeting : ‘We apologise for our earlier tweet,'” Sheldon Keay predicted.
He was right, but Cricket Australia was much quicker to react. Within 15 minutes of the offensive tweet being published, the photo had been removed and an apology sent out.
“We apologise for any offence caused by our earlier tweet. That was certainly not the intention. It has been removed,” their tweet read.
This is not the first time English Sikh spin bowler Monty Panesar has been embroiled in a racism scandal during England’s tour of Australia.
A ground announcer came under fire last month when he allegedly put on an Indian accent when introducing Panesar during a tour match in Alice Springs.
ABC employee David Nixon was stood down by Cricket Australia but has denied the claims.
“It comes as a complete surprise to me to be at the centre of a controversy about racial slurring, and I absolutely refute any allegation that I feigned an Indian accent,” he said at the time.
