• Home
• /
• Opinion

Nastase crossed the line with racist remark

Reports said someone 'overheard' what Nastase said

Two tennis greats are at it. Off court. Political incorrectness or racist? We'll leave that for later. But it's certainly unsporting behaviour when it comes from a former champion. Boorish. Current women's World No. 1 and 23 times Grand Slam winner Serena Williams thinks former World No 1 Illie Nastase crossed the line when he said of her unborn child: "Let's see what colour it has. Chocolate with milk?" Serena is black, her boyfriend, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is white, which fuelled the controversy. An investigation is on against the Romanian Fed Cup captain who is not one to hold his tongue. They called it bullying, intimidation back in the seventies when he held sway on court. Everyone loves a winner, you see. His opponents then bore the brunt of it and took it in their stride.  Very sporting thing to do those days. Tennis players didn't mind the bullies who aced it to them. Not anymore. How times have changed? Everything you say is picked up and analysed to extinction. Everyone hears, reads and listens in to all that the other person says, thanks to technology, and smart ones at that. Blame those powerful mics that relayed what Nastase mentioned after a presser or during a private conversation.
Reports said someone 'overheard' what Nastase said. Which means what he said wasn't meant for public consumption. Word got out. This after the Romanian tennis great recently asked British Fed captain Anne Keothavong for her room number and called her team something unprintable. Nastase's comment would have been acceptable if he knew Serena well. A private comment may have been okay, but not during a tennis contest. In this case, Serena and Nastase are not friends. So what he said is racist in essence. He had no business to talk of colour knowing that the parents came from different races. He wasn't sensitive to the expecting couple and the child. This is not the stuff of champions. Verbal abuse, sexist and racist comments should not be condoned on court and off it. Nastase's generation may have been sporting with the abuse thrown at them. It was all about winning. These days, it's about reputation as well. Nastase, meanwhile, remains unapologetic be-cause he has no reputation to defend. Sore loser.