Michael Holding Criticizes ICC’s ‘Hypocrisy’ in Usman Khawaja’s Armband Controversy

December 25, 2023 0 1052

Michael Holding criticized ICC’s inconsistency, labeling their response to Usman Khawaja’s armband incident as “hypocritical” given the allowance for taking a knee in support of BLM.

Former West Indies cricketer Michael Holding criticized the ICC for penalizing Usman Khawaja over wearing a black armband during a cricket match, calling it hypocritical. Khawaja had initially sought to display messages on his shoes in support of equality and human rights, related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, which the ICC refused.

Holding expressed no surprise at the ICC’s actions when speaking to The Weekend Australian, citing it as inconsistent and lacking moral standing.

“I have been following the Khawaja fiasco and I cannot say I’m surprised by the ICC’s stance. If it had been most other organizations that showed some semblance of consistency with their attitude and behavior on issues I could claim surprise, but not them. Once again, they show their hypocrisy and lack of moral standing as an organization,” Holding said.

“The ICC regulations say re messaging ‘approval shall not be granted for messages which relate to political, religious or racial activities or causes’. So how the f*** people were allowed to take the knee for BLM and stumps were covered with LGBTQ colors?” he added.

Khawaja sought to display a peace symbol, a black dove alongside “01:UDHR” (representing Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) on his bat and shoes for the upcoming Boxing Day Test against Pakistan. Despite discussions with Cricket Australia to find a suitable message, the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected his latest attempt at a humanitarian gesture. Media reports confirmed that Khawaja’s proposal was declined, continuing the trend of the ICC denying his expressions of support through symbolic gestures during cricket matches.