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Cricket great Michael Holding has taken aim at England and Australia’s men’s teams for not taking a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the current series, critiquing the “lame” rationale used by both teams.
When international cricket returned to action in July in a series between England and the West Indies, both teams took a knee ahead of each Test and players wore a Black Lives Matter logo on their jerseys.
However, after the Caribbean team departed the logo was removed from England’s kit and the onfield protests came to a halt for the Pakistan and Australia tours.
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Asked ahead of the opening Twenty20 whether Australia and England’s players would be continuing the protest during the series, Aaron Finch said: “The education around it is more important than the protest.
“For us, we are really proud to play a game where it is celebrated all around the world and anyone can play it. It doesn’t matter what race, what religion, what nationality you are from. Cricket is a game for everyone and I am really proud about that.”
Holding does not see that as a legitimate excuse.
“Now that the West Indies team has gone home, that doesn’t mean that you still shouldn’t be respecting the message and exactly what it stands for,” Holding said on Sky Sports.
“When Pakistan and England did not make that signal, the ECB came out with a pretty lame statement, as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t hear anything at all from Pakistan – neither the players nor the board, and now Australia come here and I see another lame statement from the Australia captain, who is saying that he and the England captain have spoken and have decided not to take a knee.”
CA calls out vile racist abuse aimed at Aussie T20 star
‘It’s definitely there’: Christian opens up on ‘casual racism’ in Australian cricket
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Holding, whose scorching dialogue on the battle for racial equality on Sky Sports earned widespread praise at the start of the West Indies series, said it was oversimplifying the issue to suggest education alone was all that was required.
“It is not a matter of which one is more important. Education is very important — I said that when I had my talk on Sky — but you can’t just say that education is the most important thing and do nothing else. We have still got to keep the awareness going.
“How long is that education going to take? This thing has been going on for centuries. Are you just going to educate everyone and change the world in a week or two? You have still got to keep the awareness going.
“Until people are satisfied that we are seeing moves in the right direction and that things are changing, you still need to keep the awareness going.”
He also took umbrage with Finch celebrating the fact cricket is a “game for everyone”, suggesting that is setting the bar too low.
“I don’t know any sport where anyone is barred from playing because of anything at all. So, that is a pretty lame statement and what that says to me, actually, is that if the apartheid regime in South Africa had allowed multiracial sport in South Africa and kept the apartheid laws then everything would have been ok.
“No – everything would not have been ok. I’m not here to try to tell people and to force people to do what they do not want to do. If you think you do not need to sympathise with and recognise the movement, just say that. Don’t come up with lame excuses.”
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This week Cricket Australia launched the Cricket Connecting Country series. The series aims to celebrate Indigenous cultures and multiculturism as well as encourage open discussion of issues of racism and inequality in the game both present and past.
It is the latest step CA has taken in the past 12 months towards inclusivity and reconciliation.
During last year’s Ashes campaigns, both the men’s and women’s team wore the Walkabout Wickets logo on their collar, paying their respects to First Nations Australians and honouring the 1868 Aboriginal cricket team that toured England.
The same logo replaced Kookaburra’s on a specially designed ball used in a five matches celebrating Indigenous culture. Teams wore jerseys emblazoned with Indigenous art for the games and joined in barefoot circles.
In this week’s series opening Cricket Connecting Country panel, all-rounder and Wiradjuri man Daniel Christian discussed the “casual racism” he has encountered through his career, and called for more to be done to educate Australian cricketers at every level.
“I think it is an issue in Australian cricket, I don’t think it’s as in your face as you might see around the world or even elsewhere in Australian culture,” Christian said in the panel discussion.
“I think it’s definitely there, it’s more of a casual racism, just little throwaway lines here and there made to be jokes, and a lot of that for me personally has been around the colour of my skin and the fact that I don’t look Aboriginal or whatever that means. That’s the most noticeable thing for me.
“It‘s just something that comes with a lack of education and an ignorance. I don’t think a lot of people say it with any kind of malice, it’s just that they don’t understand and don’t know.
“We just need to educate ourselves and encourage others around us to educate themselves.”
Christian was subsequently targeted by vile racist abuse on social media, which CA soundly rebuked.
“We are deeply disappointed to see blatantly racist and uneducated comments in the aftermath of Cricket Connecting Country’s premiere last night,” the organisation posted on Twitter. “Whilst we have chosen not to name the publisher of these comments publicly, we want to strongly reinforce that any form of racism or discrimination has no place in cricket, sport or wider society. Comments like these demonstrate just how far we still have to go.”
In response to Holding’s comments, CA put out the following statement:
“Cricket Australia plays a vital role in respectfully engaging with communities and stakeholders of many diverse cultural backgrounds right across Australia.
“Our Reconciliation Action Plan vision of Cricket Connecting Country comes with it accountability for cricket to be a leader and use our influence to have a positive social impact on our community.
“This begins with respect, understanding and an appreciation of different cultures and abilities.
“It is also about acknowledging historical truths positive and negative, so we can celebrate and reflect on success and right the wrongs of past events.
“There is considerable work being done to further recognise these important issues during the home summer on the First Nations and Traditional land and waters encompassing where we are privileged to live, work and play the great game of cricket.”
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