Australia opener Usman Khawaja is not softening his stance against the ICC. On Christmas, he put up an Instagram post pointing out other cricketers who are allowed to use their religious symbols, but he was not allowed to use a Dove logo for the MCG Test.
Usman Khawaja’s plea to display a dove logo on his shoe and bat to raise awareness of humanitarian issues in the upcoming MCG Test against Pakistan was denied by the ICC.
For the Boxing Day Test, the left-handed opener had made an application to the ICC to display a small dove holding an olive branch on his shoe and bat. He alluded that it is a reference to article one of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Even though Cricket Australia had not problem with this and cleared Khawaja’s request, the ICC denied it, with one spokesperson saying that “Personal messages of this nature are not allowed”.
Usman Khawaja slams ICC for their “double standards”
This certainly didn’t go well with the senior Aussie opener. Khawaja then took to Instagram to post a video in which he showed Nicholas Pooran, Marnus Labuschagne and Keshav Maharaj use symbols on their bats which are cleared by the ICC. He slammed the ICC for their “double standards”.
Khawaja captioned his Instagram post: “Merry Christmas everybody 🎄🤣. Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Cya at Boxing Day! 🙏🏾 #inconsistent #doublestandards🤦🏻”,.
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Keshav Maharaj is a Hindu and has the ‘Om’ symbol on his bat, while Labuschagne has an eagle on his bat which is his religious message.
Ahead of the first Test vs Pakistan in Perth, Usman Khawaja had written “all lives are equal” and “freedom is a human right” to show support to the victims in Gaza in its fight with Israel. However, before the Test, the ICC told him that he could not raise these slogans on the cricket field.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins has shown his support to Khawaja, saying that he doesn’t see any difference between Labuschagne putting his religious symbol and Khawaja putting a dove.
Cummins said: “All lives are equal and I don’t think that’s very offensive, and I’d say the same about the dove. That’s Uzzy. He can hold his head high the way he’s gone about it, but there’s rules in place, so I believe the ICC have said they’re not going to approve that. They make up the rules and you’ve got to accept it.”
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