Players to lay feelings bare in ceremony
VIRAT Kohli’s Indians will join the Australian sin a special ceremony before play at the SC G on Friday as ac know led gment of Indigenous Australian sand to signal zero tolerance of racism.
Neither team is expected to take a knee as a group, but they will participate in a special barefoot ceremony before play. Individuals may go a step further and adopt the traditional gesture of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Some teams and players chose to take a knee as well as form the barefoot circle during the Women’ s Big Bash League, but the issue caused tension with a small group of Christian players claiming they would only take a knee before Jesus.
The players who remained standing did so with hats off and heads bowed in sympathetic compromise with the cause.
The Australian side came up with the decision to form a barefoot circle after being criticised in the UK by West Indies legend Michael Holding for ignoring the issue during a limited overs tour.
“We sat down and discussed it as a group, a lot of people had input into it and we think it is the right way to connect with our Indigenous people,” Australian captain Aaron Finch said. “There’s obviously zero tolerance to racism in our sport and our society — well, there shouldbeanyway.
“I think this is away that we can connect with our Indigenous people, they’ve faced a lot of adversity for a long time — for generations. This is our way of supporting that cause .”
Taking a knee was a compromise gesture adopted by NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who had previously sat out the American anthem in protest at the murder of black Americans by police. The player was convinced that it was more respectful than boycotting the ceremony.
Kaepernik was attacked by the outgoing American president and dumped by his sport, but the gesture gained new traction following more deaths this year in the US at police hands.
Finch said he and the players had spent time learning more about“the injustices over the last 230 odd years in Australia” towards Aboriginal people.
India’s decision to join the Australians comes as something of a surprise after the issue was avoided by all but HardikP andy a during the IPL.
The news comes a day after South Africa’s cricketers rejected calls for them to take a knee before matches against England.
Much will be marked on the day at the game which will begin with a minutes silence and a tribute to Dean Jones who died recently and a separate tribute to Phillip Hughes on the sixth anniversary of his death.