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Two minors pulled up for racial taunt

Bangladesh fans cheer their team on AFP

Two spectators were detained at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong for racially abusing a South African player on the second day of the first Test. BCB security released them two hours later, however, because they were minors and admitted their mistakes.

"We are aware of such an incident," BCB's security committee member-secretary Mohammad Ali said. "They were two minors, around 10 or 11-year olds. They saw one or two South Africa players and made some racial comments. We were informed by the match referee and when I went there, the police had already detained them. But we couldn't really arrest them or take any more action. They were crying and admitted that they did abuse the players."

A South Africa team spokesperson said they were aware of such an incident but it had been "handled by the match officials and venue security".

The incident became public knowledge when the stadium's PA system read out the ICC's anti-racism code several times during the lunch break. There were a few more such announcements in the next couple of hours. The venue manager Fazle Bari said he was asked to make the announcements after the incident.

"Several announcements were made to raise awareness among the fans and inform them about the consequence of any kind of abuse. After that, not one has repeated it," he said.