Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has accused Ryanair staff at Dublin Airport of racist and discriminatory behaviour towards him and his family, alleging that they were told people with passports like theirs should expect such treatment.
The 48-year-old took to X on Wednesday, October 28, to describe what he called a shocking experience involving the airline’s gate personnel. In his initial post, Sangakkara questioned whether other passengers had faced similar treatment at the airport.
“Has anyone experienced discriminatory gate personnel @Ryanair in Dublin?” he wrote.
“I with my family just did and it was shocking. The tone of address and the mishandling of procedure and threatening behaviour. Unacceptable for any passenger. First bad experience in Dublin.”
Sangakkara later provided further details while responding to a user on the platform. He alleged that his family had been told that people with passports like theirs should expect such treatment. He also claimed that when they challenged the remark, they were labelled a threat to other passengers and prevented from boarding.
“When told people like you with your kind of passports should expect this treatment and that if we argued against that obviously disgusting comment we would be considered a threat to other passengers and not boarded is not treating everyone exactly the same but it is racist,” Sangakkara wrote.
Ryanair is yet to publicly respond to the allegations.
Sangakkara responds to another account of discrimination
Sangakkara’s initial post drew a response from fellow Sri Lankan Sanjiva Weerawarana, who shared his own experiences of alleged discrimination while living and travelling in Western countries.
Weerawarana said he had faced discrimination during his 16 years living abroad and 25 years of travelling back and forth, adding that he was now reluctant to visit Western countries unless necessary.
Responding to him, Sangakkara acknowledged the impact of such experiences, writing: “It is quite jarring when you experience it.”
Sangakkara’s illustrious cricket career
One of Sri Lanka’s greatest batters, Sangakkara retired from international cricket in 2015 after playing 134 Tests, 404 ODIs and 56 T20Is.
He finished with 12,400 Test runs, including 38 centuries, and 14,234 ODI runs, with 25 centuries. He was part of Sri Lanka’s teams that reached the 2007 and 2011 ODI World Cup finals, finishing runners-up on both occasions.
Since retiring, Sangakkara has remained involved in the game, including as head coach of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.
