UNITED FRONT

Hurricanes lend support to Black Lives Matter

HURRICANES import Hayley Matthews has expressed her gratitude for the backing she has received in showing her support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Both Hobart and Adelaide Strikers players took a knee prior to their opening WBBL match last weekend, a gesture the Hurricanes will continue throughout the tournament. West Indian Matthews, back in purple this summer after missing last year’s edition and the majority of the 2018-19 summer due to a knee injury, has described the importance of using her profile and the WBBL platform to help educate against “systematic racism”.

And she couldn’t have asked for more support from her own teammates and opposition players.

“Us as West Indians, myself and Stefanie Taylor, we were quite passionate about the movement and we really wanted to be able to use our platform I guess to go out there and enlighten the situation,” Matthews told the Mercury ahead of the Hurricanes’ clash against Brisbane today.

“The entire team has been really supportive of that and the Strikers were also really supportive of that.

“It is brilliant to be able to come over here and express ourselves like that.

“Obviously it is very hard to see what has been happening throughout the world, especially in the USA, when it comes to systematic racism. As players, we just want to be able to use our platform to really educate people about what is going on and keep that conversation going.

“When we do something like taking a knee on the field, a lot of people are going to be watching.

“And that means people asking questions.”

Matthews paid tribute to captain Corinne Hall, who broached the topic prior to the team’s first match.

“What was really good was my captain Corinne Hall, she actually asked me about the matter.

“I already had it in the back of my mind, we were able to have the conversation and I could let her know what I wanted to do.

“I have always felt very comfortable within the Hurricanes squad and we had a conversation about it as a team and everyone showed their full support and said they were happy to take that stance with me, which is obviously really appreciated.”

All eight captains and the WBBL’s Indigenous players have committed to perform an Indigenous Barefoot Circle ceremony before each game to show their commitment to reconciliation.

Hall said it was up to each team to decide on how they wanted to support the Black Lives Matter cause, and the entire Hobart squad was behind Matthews.

“There has been plenty of conversations around the hub in the last week or so which has been really eye opening, confronting at times, but something we have to continue to talk about,” she said. “We were definitely united in passionately supporting our people.”

The Hurricanes meet Brisbane at the Sydney Showground Stadium at 3.40pm and clash with the Melbourne Stars at Drummoyne Oval at 2.30pm tomorrow.