World cricket to address Black Lives Matter

Australian ODI and T20 captain Aaron Finch says the Black Lives Matter protest is a “huge issue” and one the national teams will be keen to address.

West Indies captain Jason Holder wears the Black Lives Matter logo on his Test shirt

Australian ODI and T20 captain Aaron Finch said the international Black Lives Matter protest was a “huge issue” and one the national teams would be keen to address in the future, as West Indies captain Jason Holder called for the ICC to introduce bans for players who racially abused opponents.

The West Indies side announced this week it would wear the same BLM logos English Premier League footballers have on their shirts during the forthcoming Test tour of the UK. Holder was photographed ahead of the games wearing the new shirt while giving a black power salute.

Finch said the Australian players had not met recently but would have a phone hook-up soon where he was sure the issue would be ­discussed.

“That will come up, no doubt. That’s obviously a huge issue and something we are all … whatever way we can support it is important,” Finch said. “There (needs to be) equality in everything, not just sport. We are in a world where we probably get a little bit more exposure than other people and I think it’s going to be important. It’s obviously been a huge issue in Australia and worldwide. There’ll be something, no doubt.”

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Sports across the globe have acknowledged the BLM movement in the past month and Holder has called for racist abuse to be treated in the same way as doping or match-­fixing by the ICC.

“I don’t think the penalty for doping or fixing should be any different for racism,” Holder told BBC Sport. “This is a pivotal moment in the history of sports, for the game of cricket and the West Indies Cricket team. We have come to England to retain the Wisden Trophy, but we are very conscious of happenings around the world and the fight for justice and equality.

“In addition to having anti-doping briefings and anti-corruption briefings, maybe we should have an anti-racism feature before we start a series. My message is that more education needs to go around it.”

Australia has no cricket scheduled in the immediate future after three ODIs scheduled to be played against Zimbabwe in August were cancelled on Tuesday. Zimbabwe has not played in Australia, aside from World Cup matches, since 2003-04.

A two-Test series in Bangladesh in June has also been cancelled because of the pandemic and the next games on the calendar for the Australians are three T20s against the West Indies in October, but those will almost certainly not go ahead if October’s T20 World Cup is postponed as expected.

There is talk, however, of a tour of England in September for some white-ball cricket, with some suggesting the two nations could even play Test matches, but that is unlikely to happen.

“It’s obviously unfortunate that Zimbabwe aren’t coming, that it’s been postponed,” Finch said. “Everyone tried their best to get that up and running. As cricketers we always want to be playing regardless of where or who it’s against. It’s in the best interests of cricket, it’s so important to play again.”

The white-ball captain said players and administrators were keen to get back to cricket and travelling to England was a possibility. “It’s a little bit up in the air, to be honest, just with how quickly everything is changing in Australia,” he said.

“Obviously in Victoria we’re going the other way again. We’ve had a little bit of an outbreak, so we’re not exactly sure when our next game is going to be.

“In our minds we were planning for Zimbabwe, we’re planning for England. All going well, that England tour I think … I think that was our next game, wasn’t it?

“That’s what we’re planning for. As a player I know in my mind I’m preparing to go to England to play. Whether that happens we’ll wait and see.

“We just have to be really conscious of being ultra flexible, and there might be a tour that comes up on relatively short notice. Because we could get that and that’d be brilliant. Whatever it takes.

“I know all the players are in the same boat. I know all of Cricket Australia, the ACA — whatever we have to do to get a game up and going is in the best interests of world cricket. We’ll be looking to do that.”