Masaba Gupta slams Ramiz Raja for laughing at racist joke against her father Vivian Richards and mom Neena Gupta: ‘Sickening to see you laugh’

Masaba Gupta has taken to Twitter to call out ex-cricketer and former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja for laughing at a racist joke directed at her father and former West Indies cricketer, Vivian Alexander Richards, and her mother, Neena Gupta.

In her Twitter post Masaba wrote, “Dear Ramiz Raja ( sir ) grace is a quality few have. My father, mother and I have it in spades.

You have none. Sickening to see you laugh on national TV in Pakistan at something the world stopped laughing at about 30 years back. Step into the future. All 3 of us are here with our chin up. #ramizraja.”

Masaba Gupta’s tweet came after a video of Ramiz Raja laughing at a racist joke targeting Vivian Richards went viral on social media.

In the clip, a comedian is seen making fun of Vivian’s skin colour. When the host of the show asked the comic if she followed cricket or not, she answered, “I do watch cricket matches and my heart broke when Vivian Richards went into a relationship with Neena Gupta. I wrote a couplet then. ‘Jo ladkiyan khud ko kehti hain malika-e-aliya, Unko fir milta hai Mr Kaliya.’” The lines roughly mean, “The girls who consider themselves the queen, eventually end up with a black man.” Ramiz Raja, who was a guest on the show, was seen laughing at this tasteless comment, supposedly meant as a joke.

This isn’t the first time a Pakistani cricketer has come under the spotlight for supporting disparaging remarks or making one themselves.

Earlier, Pakistani cricket coach and former player Abdul Razzaq received backlash for making misogynistic remarks against actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. However, he later apologized for his remark.