Usman Khawaja posted a new video on his Instagram page, highlighting what he perceives to be the ICC’s ‘double standards’ in dealing with personal messages displayed by players during games.
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Khawaja has been in the limelight for his desire to display messages of solidarity on his kit during the ongoing Australia-Pakistan series. Before the start of the first Australia vs Pakistan Test in Perth, he wore shoes with the messages “All lives are equal” and “Freedom is a human right”. He was warned by the ICC that displaying these messages during the Test match will lead to sanctions.
Khawaja accepted ICC’s decision and did not sport shoes with those messages during the game. Instead, he wrote his daughters’ names and wore a black armband, while also promising to challenge ICC’s decision and to continue his fight.
A few days back, he was reprimanded by the ICC for wearing the black armband without prior permission, another charge which he refuted, claiming it was not a form of protest, rather for a bereavement.
Today (December 25), Khawaja has posted a video on his social media page, highlighting the inconsistency of ICC in handling such issues related to personal messaging.
In his video, Khawaja has first highlights ICC’s Clothing and Equipment regulations clause which mentions that approval for personal messages won’t be granted for political, religious, or racial causes.
The video then goes on to include three instances of players displaying religious or political messages. The first of those is Nicholas Pooran sporting a cross on the back of his bat. The second shows Marnus Labuschagne using an Eagle sticker – a reference to a Bible verse – at the bottom of his bat. And the third one has Keshav Maharaj sporting an ‘Om’ symbol on his bat.
The video also contains the caption: “Merry Christmas everybody 🎄🤣. Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Cya at Boxing Day! 🙏🏾 #inconsistent #doublestandards 🤦🏻”
A couple of days back, Michael Holding voiced his opinion on ICC’s handling of this matter and called out their ‘hypocrisy’ for allowing the Black Lives Matter protests to go through while stopping Khawaja from displaying the messages “All lives are equal” and “Freedom is a human right”.
Tabraiz Shamsi, the South African spinner, has also come out in support of Khawaja, asking ICC to explain what was wrong in Khawaja’s messages.
I would like the @ICC to explain what exactly has @Uz_Khawaja done wrong??
Why the double standards??#AllLivesAreEqual #FreedomIsAHumanRight pic.twitter.com/elb1pwcg7i
— Tabraiz Shamsi (@shamsi90) December 25, 2023
The second Australia vs Pakistan Test starts at the MCG from December 26. How the ICC responds to Khawaja’s video remains to be seen.
Usman Khawaja’s Instagram video highlighting ICC’s inconsistencies:
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