Holding’s fury over ECB ‘take a knee’ snub

MICHAEL HOLDING has accused England and Australia of showing a lack of respect to the Black Lives Matter movement and says their ‘excuses’ for not taking a knee are ‘lame’. The fast-bowling great, who made a passionate address on Sky about continued racism in sport and society at the start of the Test summer, hit out at cricket’s oldest adversaries on the eve of today’s one-day international at Old Trafford. Holding says cricket forgot about the issues highlighted in the wake of George Floyd’s death ‘as soon as West Indies went home’. He also says the lack of any obvious gestures of support from the players since the start of England’s Test series against Pakistan suggests cricketers only took a knee to ‘jump on the bandwagon’. ‘I’ve been disappointed they have not taken a knee since the Pakistan series started,’ he told Sky Sports News. ‘Just because West Indies have gone home you shouldn’t stop respecting the message.’ England dropped the gesture after the third Test against West Indies while Australian captain Aaron Finch said before the start of Australia’s Twenty20 series against England that he wanted to promote education rather than take a knee. ‘I have spoken to Eoin Morgan and we are not going to do specific gestures,’ said Finch. ‘It doesn’t matter what race, religion or nationality you are from, cricket is a game for everyone and I’m really proud of that.’ But Holding (right) does not think that is good enough and said: ‘The ECB came out with a pretty lame statement as far as I’m concerned and now the Australia captain also issues a lame statement. What Aaron Finch’s comments said to me is that as long as sport is multi-racial then everything is okay. So if the apartheid regime in South Africa had allowed multiracial sport but kept the apartheid laws then everything would have been okay? ‘Education is important but you have to keep the awareness going. Someone sees a person kneeling and they ask why. The England football team have continued to do it. All over the world people are doing it. So why have the cricket team stopped? I can’t accept any flimsy excuse.’ The ECB defended England’s stance. ‘We respect the views of Michael Holding,’ they said in statement. ‘And we understand the importance of symbolism, and its power to keep an issue high on the agenda. Our goal is to ensure we deliver both reach and change.’ Meanwhile, England skipper Eoin Morgan has urged his team to forget about the spectacular hitting that inspired their World Cup victory last year and learn to win ugly. Morgan wants them to be better prepared for the low, slow pitches they will need to conquer if they are to win next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in India and the 50-over version they will defend on the subcontinent in 2023. ‘It’s a huge benefit playing at Old Trafford, particularly if we have the wicket I think we’re going to play on, which will hopefully be slow and take a lot of turn,’ said Morgan ahead of the first of three 50-over matches against Australia that complete the men’s biosecure international summer. ‘That’s the sort of pitch we will face in India and it will expose us in areas where we need to get better.’