Australian captain Pat Cummins on Monday got here in help of his teammate Usman Khawaja, saying the opener’s try and deliver to the fore the humanitarian disaster in Gaza was “not offensive.”
Cricket’s world governing physique, the ICC, has rejected Khawaja’s utility to have a sticker displaying a black dove holding an olive department on his bat and footwear through the Boxing Day Take a look at towards Pakistan.
Cummins mentioned he finds no distinction between Khawaja displaying a dove emblem on his shoe and bat to boost consciousness of humanitarian points and teammate Marnus Labuschagne displaying an eagle on his bat, which signifies a private non secular message.
“We actually help Uzzy. He’s standing up for what he believes and I feel he’s performed it actually respectfully,” Cummins instructed reporters on the eve of the second Take a look at on the MCG.
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“As I mentioned final week, ‘All lives are equal’, I don’t assume that’s very offensive and I’d say the identical concerning the dove.”
Backing his 37-year-old colleague who was born in Pakistan capital Islamabad, Cummins added, “That’s Uzzy. I feel he can actually maintain his head excessive with the best way he’s gone about it.
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“However clearly there’s guidelines in place and I imagine the ICC have mentioned they’re not going to approve that. They make up the principles and also you’ve obtained to just accept it.”
Notably, the ICC reprimanded Khawaja for carrying a black armband throughout Australia’s 360-run win over Pakistan in Perth, the motion coming after he was barred from carrying boots with the messages “Freedom is a human proper” and “All lives are equal” within the colors of the Palestinian flag through the match on the Optus Stadium.
Labuschagne shows the image of an eagle on the again of his bats which represents a verse from the bible and has lengthy been allowed to have the sticker on his bat in worldwide cricket.
Final week, Khawaja spoke concerning the affect that the Israel-Hamas battle had on him.
“After I’m my Instagram and seeing harmless children, movies of them dying, passing away, that’s what hit me the toughest,” he mentioned.
“I don’t have any agendas apart from making an attempt to shine a lightweight on what I really feel actually passionately, actually strongly about.”