Michael Holding backs Adam Goodes’ AFL Hall of fame stance
Cricket great Michael Holding says Adam Goodes’ story is evidence that great people suffer because of the colour of their skin.
West Indies cricket legend Michael Holding has backed Adam Goodes decision to turn his back on the AFL Hall of Fame saying the sport did not protect him when he played and the gesture would mean more to the institution than the vilified player.
The former fast bowler has shouldered the yoke of advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement after giving an impassioned monologue on Sky Cricket last year.
The reaction to his comments led to the publication this week of his book Why We Kneel How We Rise.
In it he reveals he experienced racism in sport for the first time from a crowd in Perth in 1975 but never from an opposition team.
Why We Kneel How We Rise is an exercise in exploring the history of racial injustice through what he calls the “whitewashing” of black achievement and includes interviews with sports stars including Usain Bolt, Thierry Henry, Michael Johnson, Makhaya Ntini, Naomi Osaka and Goodes.
“This is not a book of complaints,” Holding writes in the foreword. “It is a book of facts. I hope it will enlighten, inspire, surprise, shock, move. And, above all, help to bring about real change”.
Holding is a guest on The Australian’s Cricket Et Cetera podcast this week and said he was unaware of Goodes’ story until he came to write the book with co-writer Ed Hawkins.
Goodes recently declined an offer to enter the AFL Hall of Fame, asking organisers to keep his wishes private as he did not want to detract from others getting the honour.
The dual Brownlow medallist and Australian of the Year had been jeered into retirement at the end of the 2015 season. The AFL and all 18 clubs issued him an apology in 2018 admitting they had not protected him or stood by him during the vilification.
“People like that we needed to include in the book because we needed to show that great people have suffered because of the colour of their skin and it is so unnecessary, we needed to show how they suffered and why we desperately need to sort this problem out,” Holding told Cricket Et Cetera.
“The AFL didn’t protect Adam Goodes, they allowed the abuse to continue, he retired early, nobody tried to console him
“Then at the end of it all they want to honour him by putting him in the AFL Hall of Fame and then boast to the world ‘look at the good treatment we are giving him, we are putting him in the Hall of Fame’.
“The Hall of Fame is going to benefit more than Adam Goodes so why should he say ‘yes I’ll be happy to go into the Hall of Fame’?
“If I work for you for whatever length of time in your company and I got abused at that workplace, you knew of the abuse, you knew of the people who were abusing me, you allowed me to have to leave that workplace and then you want to honour me and pat me on the back? Sorry, I am in total agreement with Adam. No way.”
Holding says that he never experienced racism growing up in Jamaica but when he began to play cricket it started. He says he was told to ‘go back to the trees’ by members of the crowd in Perth in 1975 but never by the Australian team.
He admits he was “selfish” and never spoke up so he has not paid the price like Goodes, Osaka and other athletes, but at least he has a platform now.
“When you are on your own, you can see the back lash, you can see people being ostracised, you can see their careers coming to an end, not a lot of people are strong enough to make that sacrifice, I’m glad I wasn’t because I am still around now and able to say what I am saying and do what I am doing now,” he said.
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