The Singapore Cricket Club, in Connaught Drive, Singapore. Photo: Google Maps
The Singapore Cricket Club, in Connaught Drive, Singapore. Photo: Google Maps

The Singapore Cricket Club is a historic landmark in Lion City, but it has also been accused of having an archaic and outdated policy in regard to the people it is prepared to serve.

The Club has been accused of racial discrimination – not for the first time – for refusing to allow a foreign domestic worker attend a family dinner at the private club last Friday.

Nicholas Bloodworth, a local freelance actor, posted a note on Facebook on Monday, describing how staff at the club refused entry to “Mary”, his elder brother’s foreign domestic worker.

Mary, whose nationality was not revealed, was barred from not only dining with the family in the restaurant, but also denied entry to the premises, the Lianhe Wanbao (Singapore) reported.

Bloodworth, 33, said the action by a Chinese member of the club’s staff upset him and spoilt the family’s reunion dinner.

His father, who is a member of the club, had tried to sign Mary in as a guest but the club refused, he said, reportedly insisting that she could only stay in the car and wait at the carpark.

“[We] don’t allow maids here,” the freelance actor quoted the staff member as saying, adding that his family felt blatantly offended.

Mary offered both parties a solution by taking the actor’s niece, a young girl, for a walk, while the family, who had already been seated, decided to rush through dinner and packed a share for their worker later.

Bloodworth said the club’s policy was not fair for Mary, who worked hard and made sacrifices like everyone else, to be deprived of having dinner with the family.

He said the club’s policy was not clearly noted on their website, and added that the club had failed to learn from a similar incident in 2001, when the club’s “snobbery” – failing to admit a Sri Lankan domestic worker – was noted by the Daily Telegraph in London.

Bloodworth’s remarks on Facebook were endorsed – liked – by nearly 800 people at the time of writing.

But it is not known if the club’s actions breach the city-state’s discrimination law.

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