It is very unfortunate that the
enlivening ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 should get affected by a largely
unnecessary controversy. Did any team ever in international tournaments object
to singing their national anthem or any team object to their rivals singing
their national anthems? Definitely not, it’s being a celebrated customs in
almost all such tournaments across various fields of sports. Therefore, the
‘personal choice’ syndrome never comes up here. Then, why this syndrome has to
come up in ‘taking the knee’ for a most noble cause? In our school days our
teachers ordered us to kneel down on innumerable occasions, obviously to
correct our faults, which is why we are better human beings today. Did we even
think of exercising our democratic choice on those occasions? The Black Lives
Matter (BLM) movement, started in 2013 ‘as a decentralized political and social
movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially
motivated violence against black people’ the world over is fully justified. The
movement had its ups and downs, but after the brutal police killing of a black
protester George Floyd in the US in 2020 it has gained international prominence,
and Michael Holding, ex-cricketer of the West Indies, took painstaking efforts
to bring it in the cricket arena—unfortunately this gentleman’s game had seen
the ugly expressions of racism on quite a few occasions in international
cricket, not only involving the blacks, but also the so-called ‘colored’
players.
We have seen in most of the matches
played so far in this World Cup teams taking the knee before the start to
express their solidarity against the evil of racism. The ICC had not issued any
official directive for this gesture, but made it voluntary for the teams.
Cricket South Africa (CSA), the country that was boycotted by the international
community for years for their notorious policy of the Apartheid, has been
exemplary in making the gesture compulsory for their team before the start. So,
what’s wrong in following that noble gesture and how does the question of
personal choice come in such internationally relevant issues? Team India had
also taken the gesture as per instructions from their cricket board, and
England also expressed the gesture in their match against the West Indies like
most other teams.
The noble gesture was also made during
South Africa’s starter match against Australia; of course, not involving all
the players. But suddenly and most significantly as the encounter was against
the West Indies, South Africa’s key opener and wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock made
an issue out it, calling his refusal to bend his knee due to personal reasons.
Not only did he refuse to make the gesture, but also withdrew from the match in the last minutes which was confirmed by the CSA. This is extremely disturbing,
because de Kock has also been a key cricketer in the Indian Premiere League
(IPL) for years, playing for the Mumbai Indians (the franchise may release him
soon due to the impact) that included a lot of black and ‘colored’ players; in
fact, India is a country of colored people only. So then, why de Kock never
objected to playing continuously with them, as an integral team member? If his
‘personal choice’ is not to support the BLM movement then it stinks of racism,
or else de Kock is perhaps a staunch supporter of the ‘white supremacy’ theory
so bullishly propounded by the ex-President of USA, Donald Trump. We condemn
his action in the World Cup which may ultimately adversely impact his entire
cricket career, and South Africa, obviously, would never want to lose such a
key player. The CSA has to give the final verdict on the future of Quinton de
Kock even as some media reports suggest the player has withdrawn from the
entire tournament while others fear that this must the last time we had seen de
Kock on the field.
We hope for an amicable solution for all
the stakeholders concerned holding the noble cause high, respecting the ideals and the movement of Nelson Mandela and suitable punishment
for anyone guilty of being a racist. The ICC, in fact, should take this
opportunity to make ‘taking the knee’ gesture mandatory for all participating
teams. The Council righteously bans any kind of political or religious
gestures, but in upholding this noble cause there cannot be any hesitation or
the principles of democratic choices.
In the match against the struggling West Indies
where the controversy had erupted South Africa won easily, without de Kock. In other matches Afghanistan in Group-2
registered a huge victory over the topper of the qualifying Group-B Scotland,
even bigger than that of Pakistan's over India. Pakistan continue their
exciting run of victories by defeating New Zealand, although they had to
struggle to chase a low target of 135 runs. England in Group-1 also have kept
their ominous bulldozing act in continuation by routing Bangladesh. Both
Pakistan and England are apparently enjoying their toss-luck so far as per the
behaviour of the slow pitches and the dew factor later for the bowling side. After
creating history by making it to the Super-12 stage for the first time, defeating
a well-placed Ireland, Namibia won their first match of the World Cup against
Scotland with relative comfort in Group-2.
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