3 minute read

Kane Richardson says he and Marcus Stoinis had been having normal cricket 'banter' before his former BBL teammate directed a homophobic slur at him.

Kane Richardson has no idea what had prompted Marcus Stoinis to direct a homophobic slur at him but says he'd never seen his former teammate so angry.

Stoinis was fined $7500 for abusing Richardson in last week's Melbourne BBL derby, but controversially avoided a ban over the incident.

The Melbourne Stars' allrounder immediately apologised to the Renegades' quick, and moved to clear the air again the next morning via WhatsApp.

But Richardson said there was nothing out of the ordinary in the banter between the pair before the slur, with the duo known to have an ongoing on-field rivalry.

"It was just harmless cricket chat," Richardson said from Australia's camp in Mumbai.

"For some reason, he reacted the way he did. You would have to ask him why - it was really out of character.

"He looked more angry than I have ever seen him. I'm not sure what he was thinking. The learning has to be that this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

Richardson and Stoinis played together in last year's one-day World Cup, before the latter was dropped for this week's three-match ODI series in India.

Richardson said he had not been overly offended by the slur and there was no lingering issue between the pair from it.

But he believed it important that Stoinis had apologised publicly over the matter.

"(We had) a little WhatsApp the morning after, but not a whole lot of conversation about it," Richardson said.

"He realised he made a mistake. I could just tell by his body language during the rest of his innings that night that he knew he made a mistake.

"To be honest, I didn't need an apology for myself - he didn't offend me. It's more what he said that offends so many people.

"It was more just his actions and everyone's actions going forward to make sure that sort of thing doesn't happen again."