Sport

De Kock finally knelt down, but only after putting the spotlight on gestures and confusing ICC policies

October 31, 2021
Sezarr

The Indian cricket team took a knee before their T20 World Cup match against Pakistan in Dubai on 24 October 2021. | Photo: Twitter

Form of words:

New Delhi: ‘Taking the knee’, a symbolic gesture to protest racism by South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock after he pulled out of his team’s Super 12 match against West Indies in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, has been a topic of discussion in the cricket world this week. Has been made.

De Kock’s move came after he refused to take a knee on Tuesday Government Order by Cricket South Africa (CSA).

The action came two days after all members of the Indian team were seen kneeling before their 10-wicket loss to arch-rivals Pakistan. Pakistani players expressed their solidarity by placing their hands on their hearts.

While de Kock was criticized all round for not standing by his teammates, Indian players were termed as hypocrites for standing up against racism but not in solidarity with the oppressed minority groups in India.

de kock release Statement Apologizing for his actions on Thursday. He explained his reasoning for the decision, criticizing the CSA’s mandate and reiterating his life-long commitment to racial justice.

De Kock finally took a knee as he returned to the squad for South Africa’s Super 12 match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah on Saturday.

However, this episode was not the first time that anti-racism gestures or the ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) movement made headlines in the cricketing world.

On 8 July 2020, All 11 West Indies players, led by captain Jason Holder as well as England openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley, took a knee before bowling the first ball in the first test match after Covid-19 in Rose, Southampton. lamps. bowl.

The BLM’s past protests over the killing of an African-American man, George Floyd, in the US last year triggered the Windies gesture.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) also allowed Holder’s side to wear the BLM insignia on the jersey collar in Tests. England followed suit with its own BLM logo.

The move nullified the ICC rule banning players from sports messages related to any “political, religious or racial” reason.

Subsequently, the global cricket governing body also posted its content to focus on anti-racism from the BLM in the sport. It launched a clear dialogue to tackle the issue and promoted the work of Indigenous activists in Australia.

Read also: What South African Cricket Doesn’t Get About the BLM Movement Like the Rest of the Sports World

What is the status of ICC?

However, the ICC’s larger policy on this issue only appears to be confusing and afterthought.

Cricket South Africa’s mandate this week came after its players made a variety of gestures ahead of their first match against Australia. On his behalf, India captain Virat Kohli revealed His team took a knee after a decision was “communicated” by the team management on Tuesday.

Other countries participating in the World Cup such as the West Indies and Scotland have been seen kneeling in a more organic way. The Sri Lankan team has not taken a knee, a . according to Order Issued by Sri Lanka Cricket which is in force for several months.

These differences in the position of the teams on gesture as well as the controversies surrounding it have put a question mark on what the ICC actually allows with regards to the BLM movement and anti-racism.

Prior to this, the choice of Moeen Ali, M S Dhoni, fans in england During the 2019 Men’s ODI World Cup and Zimbabwe Cricket Has been either punished or warned by the ICC for displaying a political message or for political interference.

Now, the ICC has chosen to take more “Common Sense Approach” To the players who want to kneel.

On Tuesday, after de Kock stirred up controversy, the ICC Having said Its position on the players kneeling during the tournament. “After some teams expressed their willingness to gesture against racism, the ICC gave all teams the opportunity to do so,” an ICC spokesperson was quoted as saying.

NS Clothing and Equipment Rules and Regulations In the ICC Code of Conduct, which was last updated in July 2021, it states that wearing, displaying or conveying “personal messages” is prohibited, unless first approved by the player/team’s cricket board and the ICC Cricket Operations Department. is not approved.

“Approval will not be given for messages that are related to political, religious or racial activities or causes. The ICC shall have the final authority to determine whether any such message is approved,” the rules say.

Kneeling, anti-racism or Black Lives Matter are not specifically designated as pre-approved exceptions to the ICC Code of Conduct.

However, in the wake of media statements as well as incidents witnessed this month in the men’s T20 World Cup, taking a knee or other anti-racist gestures has been given an unwritten sanction by cricket’s governing body.

Read also: ‘Turbaned strangers’ – British interrogated, sorted and colour-coded Indian POWs after Dunkirk

West Indies team and role of Michael Holding

The incident that provoked the kneeling gesture was the Black Lives Matter movement in the US in June 2020, after which the killing Of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a Caucasian police officer in downtown Minneapolis.

In terms of cricket, it was largely current and former West Indies players who were at the fore in expressing solidarity with the BLM.

As cricket around the world came to a standstill due to the Covid pandemic, the West Indies men’s team’s tour of England in June 2020 represented the sport’s international return. But it has come against the backdrop of these protests.

All-rounders Jason Holder and Kieron Pollard, who were the Windies Test and limited overs captains respectively, expressed their unequivocal support for the movement and encouraged the cricketing world to support them.

However, he was a former Windies fast bowler and sky game Commentator Michael Holding, best known for his passionate, emotional speech on live television initially during the broadcast of the England-West Indies Test series and later to emerge as an expert voice in the media on issues and controversies of racism in cricket Got headlines. .

“What people need to understand is that this thing happened a long time ago, hundreds of years ago. The dehumanization of the black caste started from there. People will say to you, ‘It was a long time ago, end this’. No, you don’t get over things like this. Society hasn’t achieved anything like this, so how can individuals?” Holding said during the telecast.

Earlier this year, in his new-found role as a social commentator, Holding co-wrote book with Cricket writer and investigative journalist Ed Hawkins.

Topic Why do we kneel, how do we get up, the book focuses on the history of the dehumanization of black people in sport, and includes Holding’s interviews with players such as Usain Bolt, Naomi Osaka, Thierry Henry and Makhaya Ntini.

“There wasn’t a single ‘lightbulb’ moment when I suddenly realized something wasn’t quite right, although I will say that my trips to England in the 1970s and 1980s proved to be a particularly rich – and disturbing – education,” Holding writes, explaining why he wrote the book.

Holding’s interview with Ntini is particularly important to cricket as the former South African fast bowler expressed his disapproval of the country’s association with racial quota policies for senior team selection in cricket, lamenting that he had lost his entire life. Dealt with the “negative repercussions” of the career system, which is being labeled. A “quota player”.

However, Ntini’s revelations about experiencing repeated isolation and isolation from the rest of the South African team as the only black player strengthened Holding’s argument about the need to make ‘kneeling’ a mainstay in cricket. .

“Makhaya implemented my ideas on the problem. Every sport or industry may try to organize its own home, but the message has to reach society at large or there may not be any real meaningful change,” concluded Holding.

(Edited by Amit Upadhyay)

Read also: Black Lives Matter, racial justice protests take center stage at Tokyo Games

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