Australia vs Pakistan, 1st Test: The challenge Khawaja faces over Palestine protest

Cricket is mired in confusion. Players can support Black Lives Matter but Usman Khawaja can’t wear boots with All Lives Matter, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Cricket is mired in confusion and conflict and Usman Khawaja’s sanctioned shoes are the embodiment of the struggle.

On one hand players are allowed to take a knee to support the Black Lives Matter movement but when Khawaja wanted to wear boots with the message All Lives Matter he was deemed out of order.

Australia wouldn’t play Afghanistan in a series because of the way it treats women but was happy to play them in the World Cup.

Sometimes politics matters. Other times it doesn’t.

Khawaja was banned by Australia from wearing shoes which supported Palestinians trapped in the Gaza war.

In the end he didn’t need to wear them to get his point across. The publicity he received when they were spotted the previous day at training did the trick.

Usman Khawaja’s shoes carry a message. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Had he felt truly committed to wearing them in a game he made a mistake by writing the messages early and taking the shoes to training.

Had he walked out to bat in the shoes on day one he would probably been fined but his message would have reached its widest audience.

In retrospect, Khawaja should have backed his cause by speaking publicly about it such was the sensitivity of the issue rather than let his skipper Pat Cummins face the cameras and negotiate some challenging terrain.

The backstory to Khawaja’s stance started long before anyone had ever heard of him as a cricketer. Khawaja always had deep-seated feelings about racial equality.

Usman Khawaja has become more outspoken in recent years. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

As a Pakistani-born, proudly Muslim immigrant to western Sydney, he had his own stories to tell about racism and inequality at school, in cricket and in life.

Nothing that should be compared to the atrocities in Gaza but experiences which nonetheless made him a passionate and unshackled voice on racial equality.

For many years he kept his most inner thoughts well away from public view but in the final stages of his career he has decided to let more water flow out of the dam.

If he feels strongly about something he will let the world know.

Australia often laments the lack of characters in sport and that athletes are taught to say nothing.

Khawaja is happy to break the mould but his price for being so bold this time was a dramatic 20 hour period when an angry ICC called Cricket Australia to reinforce their objection to his plan.

The long arm of the law closed in on Khawaja who had little option to abandon his plan, perhaps taking away the consolation of knowing that he still got his message across.

Originally published as Australia vs Pakistan, 1st Test: The challenge Khawaja faces over Palestine protest