Micheal Holding’s finest delivery yet shines a harsh light on racism in cricket and beyond
Rain limited play as Test cricket returned from its COVID-19-induced hibernation, but it was welcome, allowing more room for Michael Holding’s urgent, emotional thoughts about racism that challenge all of us.
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To most of the admiring cricket world the West Indian greats of the 1970s and 80s were swaggering super heroes with shields of armour no flaming arrow could penetrate.
Now we know a bit more.
The flaming arrows of racism did get in and they did draw blood.
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Michael Holding’s emotional thoughts about racism in cricket and the world became the central theme of the day Test cricket returned from its COVID-induced hibernation.
Test cricket has seen nothing like the Black Lives Protest before play in the resumption Test against West Indies at Southampton, but in some ways Holding’s spiel was more even powerful because it was so personal and emotional.
Just 17.4 overs were possible on the first day of the Test between England the West Indies at the Rosebowl in a contest featuring no fans, no hand shakes at the toss, no team lists being swapped and generally hands off everything and anything that mattered.
But the rain delay gave the commentary team a chance to dissect the issues of the day and Holding, renowned throughout the cricket world as one of its trusted straight-shooters, took the microphone and marked out his long run.
Holding said perfection was depicted as a “pale skinned’’ Jesus and Judas, who betrayed him, was “a black man and a bad man’’ and how “history is written by the conquerors not the conquered.’’
He claimed people remember the man who invented the light bub, Thomas Edison, because he was white but no-one was taught that Lewis Latimer invented the filament that enables it to shine because he was black.
Holding was close to tears.
In some ways his words did sounded entirely unrehearsed. In others it seemed like he had been telling those stories for 30 years.
This was the moment when the cork popped off the bottle and they just gushed out.
Holding played in an era when the Windies crushed the cricket world.
They had a swagger and self-belief like no other cricket team before or since, remaining undefeated from 1980-95.
When they visited Australia they were treated like gods. Kerry Packer loved them more than anyone and tried to get them here every summer.
They looked, sounded and played as if they were emotionally bulletproof, but to hear Holding talk you wonder how they suffered behind the scenes.
Occasional flashpoints provided vivid insights into the sensitivity of the issue.
When Tony Greig infamously said he wanted to make the West Indies “grovel’’, it motivated them to a landslide series win over England and Viv Richards made the most stinging observation of all when he said “grovel is a word that really bothers a black man.’’
Curtly Ambrose was occasionally spotted on tour wearing a Malcolm X T-shirt and back in the 80s and 90s crowd abuse was essentially uncensored and, on occasions, downright vile.
On some days racism seems invisible in cricket. India captain Virat Kohli is a hero around the globe. Sachin Tendulkar the same. Brian Lara was as admired in the countries he played against as the teams he played with.
But it was not always this way.
One of the reasons Indian cricket bosses like throwing their considerable weight around is they remember the many decades they spent being treated as a second-class team by mightier nations, including Australia.
Let’s be frank. For too many decades Australia and England ran Test cricket as if it was their private fiefdom.
Cricket Australia is proud of the support it gives to Indigenous cricket programs, and rightly so. But that does not change the fact that - incredibly - Jason Gillespie was the first Indigenous male to play a Test for his country.
It is a numbing statistic and it proves the point that the battle is ongoing.
Originally published as Micheal Holding’s finest delivery yet shines a harsh light on racism in cricket and beyond