A day after the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected Australia opener Usman Khawaja’s newest utility to boost consciousness over the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, the place he requested to show an image of a dove and an olive department on his bat and footwear throughout the Boxing Day Test match towards Pakistan on Sunday, the batter took to social media to name out cricket’s apex physique and description their “double standards” over the difficulty.
Usman Khawaja factors out ICC’s “double standards” in social media put up
Khawaja was earlier barred from sporting footwear that had the messages “all lives are equal” and “freedom is a human right” within the first Test match towards Pakistan final week and was then charged by ICC for sporting a black armband throughout the Perth conflict. He had, nonetheless, later clarified that it was as a result of a “personal bereavement” and that he would problem the choice earlier than revealing that he would not do the identical within the MCG Test match.
Wrap up the 12 months passed by & gear up for 2024 with HT! Click right here
The Aussie batter felt that as an alternative of written messages, he could be allowed to show an image, of a black dove with an olive department – a logo of peace – within the subsequent Test match. He, in actual fact, had the image on show on each his bat and footwear throughout the coaching nets on Sunday in Melbourne, however the request to hold out the identical in a global recreation was denied.
Disappointed at ICC’s stance, he took to Instagram on Monday to focus on the “double standards” and “inconsistency” in following their laws. He uploaded a video with Kanye West’s ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ within the background and captioned it: “Merry Christmas everybody. Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Cya at Boxing Day! #inconsistent #doublestandards.”
The video had photos of his teammate Marnus Labuschagne with an eagle and bible verse on his bat and South Africa all-rounder Keshav Maharaj with the ‘Om’ image (in generic Devanagari image) on his bat.
Earlier within the day, Australia captain Pat Cummins, within the pre-game presser on the MCG, was requested about his opinion on the Khawaja saga and he backed his teammate saying that his messages weren’t “very offensive”.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of the application, but I think it is pretty vanilla, a dove,” Cummins said. “We really support Uzzy, I think he’s standing up for what he believes and I think he’s doing it really respectfully. All lives are equal and I don’t think that’s very offensive, and I’d say the same about the dove. That’s Uzzy. He can hold his head high the way he’s gone about it, but there’s rules in place, so I believe the ICC have said they’re not going to approve that. They make up the rules and you’ve got to accept it.”
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
