'Go back to trees that you came from': When Windies heroes faced racial slurs

Former West Indian pace bowler Micheal Holding has revealed in a new documentary series that he and his great teammates, of the late 1970s and early 80s, regularly faced racial abuse.

Nicknamed ‘Whispering Death’, Holding recalls in the Sky Sports-produced series – ‘My Icon’ – he faced most racial discrimination in Australia and England.

SkySports.com quoted Holding as saying: "Racism to me is a very complex subject. I can give you a lot of instances [where I have faced it] in Australia and this country.

"The first time I came to this country the entire team got letters saying 'go back to your trees that you came from' and that sort of thing.

"And they would slant the lines and try and write it to the give the impression it was kids writing it -- but you knew they weren't kids.

"There has been progress [since then] but at the same time a lot more work has to be done.

"We have a long, long way to go before we are all recognised as one race. There is one race - the human race, and as long as we keep thinking about different races we will never get to where we should be."

Holding now spends majority of his time in the UK, commentating for broadcaster Sky Sports.