Cricketers on and off the field are after all human beings. With all the world diversified and people of different religion and culture spread across the globe it is rather ridiculous to oppose a person to practice his own beliefs and traditions in their respective places of works be it sports in the form of cricket. However this doesnt seems to go well with the parent organization who for some reason tries to refrain the cricketer from practicing his beliefs in fear of religion taking over the game of cricket.
Many such incidences has happened in the past with the likes of Great Sachin Tendulkar asked to place the Indian Tricolor over the BCCI symbol on his helmet or MS Dhoni to change his wicket keeping gloves due to to its resemblance to the Indian Army. The latest brewing in this topic was when ICC reprimanded Australian left handed opener Usman Khawaja and rejected his appeal to portray a dove with an olive branch on his cricket gear in support to raise an awareness on humanitarian issues.
This was the new addition to the already brewing controversy versus Usman Khawaja where he was reprimanded for his stand on equal rights to all the people .
This irked the cricketer and he took to Instagram to mock this stand from the ICC.
Usman Khawaja raises concerns over ICC’s stand over religious practices in cricket.
Left Handed Australian opener Usman Khawaja indirectly accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of ‘double standards’ for rejecting his appeal to portray a dove with an olive branch on his cricket gear to raise awareness on humanitarian issues on Monday.
He made a Christmas post on Instagram with the hashtags #inconsistent and #doublestandards. It included a snapshot of the ICC’s rules against political and religious messages, followed by photos of Nicholas Pooran, Marnus Labuschagne and Keshav Maharaj with various religious symbols on their bats.
Pooran plays with a bat with a Christian cross on it. Labuschagne displays the symbol of an eagle, which represents a verse from the Bible, while Maharaj has often batted with the Hindu symbol of ‘OM’ on his willow.
“Merry Christmas everybody 🎄🤣. Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Cya at Boxing Day! 🙏🏾 #inconsistent #doublestandards🤦🏻”, Khawaja wrote in his Instagram post.
The dove with an olive branch is a popular symbol of peace in Western and Judeo-Christian culture. The Australian opener proposed to use it on his bat and shoes after being reprimanded by the ICC for showing slogans with “all lives are equal” and “freedom is a human right” on his shoes during the first Test against Pakistan.
It is too curious to know how ICC rejected such a plea which seems to be of some importance to the cricketer’s faith and beliefs.
Khawaja looked in good form and scored a 90 in the first Test against Pakistan. The two teams will now compete in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, starting Tuesday 26th of December 2023.