Paul Adams recalls discrimination he faced in his career as player and coach

Former South Africa spinner Paul Adams recalled several instances of racism during his career, which included being nicknamed 'brown s***' by his teammates and also during his coaching career.

At the Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings, Adams, who made his Test debut in 1995, said, "I was called brown s*** when I was playing. It often used to be a song when we won a game and we were in fines' meetings. They would sing, 'brown s*** in the ring, tra la la la laa," as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

"When you are playing for your country, when you have had that victory, you don't make sense of it, you brush it off, but it's blatantly racist. Some people will say unconscious bias and they weren't aware but this is why we are here - to change that," he further added.

Adams also said he would never understand he was also discriminated due to his unorthodox bowling action.

"When I burst on the scene, I was very different: my action, I was very different from the norm, from how I looked, the music I played and even how I spoke. But one thing stood out for me, which was how some parts of the media described my bowling action. It would be described as 'stealing hubcaps off moving cars' and I found it derogatory. Was it because I was born in the Cape Flats? Is it always that Cape Coloureds are referred to as gangsters and thieves? It's a form of racial stereotyping," Adams, who has 134 Test and 29 ODI wickets said. 

Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi was recently criticised by many ex-cricketers including Pat Symcox as he expressed that the South African team should take the knee in support of the BLM movement. However, Adams, Ashwell Prince formed a group of 31 cricketers and issued a statement in support of Ngidi.

"As sportsmen, you have to play a bigger role in society."

"You've got the opportunity, you've got the platform, you've got to create awareness," Adams added.