REPORT: Controversial batsman Mark Vermeulen has been banned from all cricket by Zimbabwe Cricket for engaging in a racist tirade on social media site Facebook in which he denigrated black Zimbabweans by referring them as “apes”.
In a statement released on Friday, Cricket Zimbabwe said that Vermeulen “owned up to repulsive remarks” which reflects “prejudice and plain ignorance”.
In an Facebook conversation thread started by former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor over Proper Utseya’s claims of racial discrimination by Alistair Campbell, Vermeulen expressed regret at the way blacks had been educated, claiming it was the reason the whites were subjected to racism in the game.
The 36-year-old then called the blacks apes. Taylor has since took down the post, but not before others had already taken screenshots.
Here is Vermeulen’s full post: “Haaaaaa a a a!!!!!!!!!! If we had left them in the bush and never educated them prosper wouldn’t be having these problems because he would be living happily in his mud hut eating ground up maize so of course it’s our fault every single problem a black has is because of white people that’s why racism is only able to work one way because we basically fxxxd up the apes’ lives.”
The statement added that ZC “find Vermeulen’s Facebook comment distasteful and unacceptable particularly for a senior sportsman who should have learnt from playing in Zimbabwe and abroad that there is no place for racism in sport more so on the field of play where one may have team-mates and therefore colleagues of different races.”
“Racism is abominable and there can be no defence for it. The best anyone who is uncomfortable with another race can do is to rehabilitate themselves so that they accept fellow human beings as equals and not “apes”,” the statement continued.
