Former England batter Rainford-Brent target of racist hate letter
Former England batter Rainford-Brent target of racist hate letter
(Reuters) - Former England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent revealed on Wednesday that she had received a hate mail containing racist slurs in which the sender had asked her to “leave our country”.
Rainford-Brent, the first black woman to play for England when she made her debut in 2001 at the age of 17, shared an image of the handwritten letter on social media – two days after Azeem Rafiq gave damning testimony that cataloged racism in sport.
The letter contained a number of swear words and asked the 37-year-old: “Who invited you to my country? and described her as “illiterate, primitive” and found “naked in Africa”.
“Interesting … Born in South London but apparently I was found naked in Africa as a primitive. I had a few letters in my day but this one (is) up there,” Rainford wrote -Brent on Twitter.
Rainford-Brent played for England for nine years and received the MBE on the Queen’s Birthday Honors list earlier this year for his service to sport and charity.
Now a commentator, she teamed up with former West Indian cricketer Michael Holding last year to discuss racism and the Black Lives Matter movement.
