Ricky Ponting says Black Lives Matter most important issue in society

The captain of the Australian side during its greatest racial controversy joins Justin Langer in supporting the movement.

Ricky Ponting, left, with Andrew Symonds and then Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland during the 2008 “Monkeygate” affair

Ricky Ponting, captain of the Australian side during its greatest racial controversy, believes the Black Lives Matter movement is one of the most important issues facing society and one Australian cricket needs to engage with.

The comments come a week after Justin Langer acknowledged that the Australians should have put more thought into taking a knee before the games against England, but said they were discussing a more sustainable way of addressing the issue of racism in society and the game.

Ponting, the coach of the Delhi Capitals, was asked about criticism by Michael Holding of the Australian and England teams during the recent white-ball series.

The West Indian great, whose moving words on the subject gained international attention when Test cricket returned to the UK, said Aaron Finch’s explanation that the team believed education was more important than gestures was “lame”.

As captain of the team when Andrew Symonds was called a monkey by Harbhajan Singh in 2008, Ponting knows only too well about the issue and institutional failings around racism.

The respected cricket figure was bitterly disappointed with Cricket Australia’s concessions to the BCCI at the time and believes it eventually ended Symonds’ career.

Allan Border, who was a director at Cricket Australia at the time, later told The Australian he thought the board chose “money over morality” when it conceded to India during the controversy.

The administration admitted recently it had got the situation wrong and said it would attempt to right that wrong with Symonds.

Players on both teams took a knee during the West Indies tour of the UK, but not during the series between England and Australia despite the Australians discussing it at length in team meetings before departing.

Finch had indicated sympathy to the cause and a desire to do something before leaving for England but the men’s teams have no clear plans on what to do or how to do it.

The BLM issue is a trigger to right-wing groups and racists who criticise some of its more extreme adherents while arguing that white lives matter. Holding said that nobody need tell black people white lives matter as everybody is only too well aware of that.

Players takes a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on the first day of the first Test between England and the West Indies in July

Ponting acknowledged the importance of the social protest movement this week.

“It’s a huge issue in world society right now and whatever we as cricketers can do to help that cause we should do what we can,” he said during an video interview with Inside Sport from the UAE. “We should certainly be talking about it.

“It’s not just about the Australian cricket team, it’s about Australian cricket and it’s about the world game.

“I’m not sure what the England team thought about it, I’m not sure if it was something that was discussed before that first one day game came around.

“I think what Aaron was trying to say (is) that maybe more time and effort be put into education on this stuff than making a stance and making a protest.”

“Justin’s not going to sugar coat anything, if he thinks he’s made a mistake or any of his players have made a mistake or think Cricket Australia or the game has made a mistake he will most definitely get on the front foot and talk about it.

“The fact Aaron Finch made a statement like he did suggests to me they had spoken about that as a group.”

Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh exchange words during the ‘Monkeygate’ incident at the SCG in 2008

There have been no gestures of support made by the IPL or any of its franchises to this point of that tournament which started this week in the UAE. The Australian understands there was no directive from the BCCI but there is a strong belief the issue is irrelevant to Indian fans.

Finch, who is in the UAE with the IPL, was asked during the Australians UK tour why both sides had decided against any gesture.

“The education around it is more important than the protest,” he said.

“I have spoken to Eoin (Morgan) and we are not going to do specific gestures like it has happened in the past.

“For us, we are really proud to play a game where it is celebrated all around the world and anyone can play it.

“It doesn’t matter what race, what religion, what nationality you are from. Cricket is a game for everyone and I am really proud about that.”

Holding has become a figure head for cricket on racial matters since his emotional explanation of the impact of racism on coloured people. He did not demand sides make a gesture but said he was disappointed at the explanations for not doing so.

“He (Finch) is saying is that he‘s glad that he is part of a sport where no one is barred from playing, irrespective of your race, your gender, your ethnicity, your religion,“ Holding said on his YouTube show Mikey — Holding Nothing Back.

“Well, I don‘t know any sport where anyone is barred from playing because of anything at all.

“So that‘s a pretty lame statement and what that says to me, actually, is that if the apartheid regime in South Africa had allowed multiracial sport in South Africa and kept the apartheid laws then everything would have been OK.

“Now that the West Indies team has gone home, that doesn‘t mean that you still shouldn’t be respecting the message and exactly what it stands for.

“If you go back to when taking a knee started and what it stood for, or stands for, it goes back to Colin Kaepernick in America, who took a knee because he wanted to bring attention to the racism and police brutality against people of colour in that country.

“Yes, it is more acute in the United States than in most other places but people around the entire world took on the mantle of spreading the word and getting this message out that it is time for equality and time for equal justice, and all that.

“It was no longer just a black-versus-white thing; it was a matter of humanity coming together and saying ‘listen, we need everyone to be treated equally’.”