A day after not being allowed to wear shoes with messages written in solidarity with the people of Gaza, Australia’s veteran opener Usman Khawaja wore a black arm band instead on day one of the first Test against Pakistan at Optus Stadium on Thursday.
With Australia electing to bat first, Khawaja taped over the messages written on his shoes and sported a black armband while coming out to open the batting alongside David Warner. On the black armband, Cricket Australia said, “He is wearing it in solidarity and respect per his Insta post yesterday.”
Khawaja was spotted with messages like ‘all lives are equal’ and ‘freedom is a human right’ written on his shoes in Australia’s practice session. On Wednesday, CA had released a statement over Khawaja’s intention to wear shoes with the humanitarian messages, saying, “We support the right of our players to express personal opinions. But the ICC has rules in place which prohibit the display of personal messages which we expect the players to uphold.”
Later in the evening, Khawaja posted an explosive video on social media, vowing to fight and seek the approval of ICC over sporting shoes with written words. “There’s so much that has happened in the past that sets a precedent. I’m in full support of Black Lives Matter. There’s plenty of guys who have written on their shoes before.”
“There’s other guys that have written religious things on their equipment, and under the ICC guidelines, that’s not technically allowed, but the ICC never says anything on that. I find it a little bit disappointing they came down hard on me and they don’t always come down hard on everyone else,” said Khawaja on Fox Cricket ahead of start of the Test against Pakistan.
Mike Baird, the CA Chairman, said they backed Khawaja, but added that ICC rules have to be respected. “When the team and ICC is involved, there are rules involved. So from our point of view, (we’re) very happy to support Uzzy (Khawaja) and he’s obviously directly impacted by the conflict that is going on in the Middle East and wants to use his voice. It’s just a question of how we use it noting the rules that are in place,” he said on ABC Grandstand.
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