Australia’s Usman Khawaja, who was reprimanded by the International Cricket Council for wearing a black armband in support of Palestinians in Gaza during the first cricket test against Pakistan, has been denied permission to place a peace symbol on his bat and shoes for the Boxing Day Test against tghe same opposition, according to media reports.
ICC regulations prevent cricketers from displaying messages of political, religious or racial causes during international matches.
Khawaja was born in Pakistan and is the first Muslim to play test cricket for Australia.
A sticker showing a black dove and the words 01:UDHR — a reference to Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — was on his bat and shoes during training in Melbourne on Sunday.
The star batter had multiple meetings with Cricket Australia over recent days to find a message that would be appropriate for the second Test this week, local media said.
But his latest humanitarian gesture has been turned down by the International Cricket Committee, The Australian and Melbourne Age newspapers reported.
Khawaja, a Muslim, was stopped from wearing shoes emblazoned with the hand-written slogans “Freedom is a human right” and “All lives are equal” during the first Test in Perth.
The 36-year-old had wanted to show his support for the people of Gaza.
But he was told they flouted ICC rules on messages that relate to politics, religion or race.
He wore a black armband during the match and was reprimanded by the ICC, but insisted afterwards it was for a “personal bereavement” and vowed to contest the ruling.
Khawaja spoke on Friday about how the Israel-Hamas conflict had affected him, saying he despaired at seeing how many children had been killed.
“When I’m looking at my Instagram and seeing innocent kids, videos of them dying, passing away, that’s what hit me the hardest,” he said.
“I don’t have any agendas other than trying to shine a light on what I feel really passionately, really strongly about.”
On Friday, Khawaja received support from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said the “all lives are equal” message was uncontroversial and not intended as a political statement.
“I think Usman Khawaja is a great Australian cricketer and that the position that he put forward is . . . pretty uncontroversial, one that ‘all lives are equal’ is a sentiment that I think is uncontroversial,” Albanese said. “Usman Khawaja made his position clear, which is he didn’t see it as a political statement.”
(With inputs from Agencies)
Comments
0 comment