Cricket is back! After more than four months of being out of the game due to the coronavirus pandemic threat, the game is once again on for Cricket players and their fans. A match was scheduled between West Indies and England Southampton.
Although the game was riddled with rainfall causing great inconvenience, emotions soon soared as the two teams joined in a peaceful protest against racial discrimination and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Before the match between West Indies and England started, they offered a minute of silence in commemoration of the coronavirus’s victims. One of the victims was West Indies legend Everton Weekes, who died last week at the age of 95.
After that, they all dropped to one knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Additionally, West Indies players wore a black glove on their right hands, in reference to the “Black Power” protests that were done by famous by US athletes back at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
“It was a great moment, showing something we stand for and that racism has no part in cricket,” West Indies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel said.
“We felt like we wanted to do something different, we felt if we wanted to make a bigger statement we should wear the black glove and it worked as people are talking about it,” West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick said.
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England’s team, expressed words of support as well, with batting coach Graham Thrope saying that there should be no racism in their sport.
“That was our way of showing our support to the Black Lives Matter campaign,” Thorpe said. “It’s important to show solidarity with the West Indies. The bottom line is we feel there is no room for racism in the sport.”
Both teams wore shirts with BLM logos during the three-match series. The matches took place behind closed doors, with no fans in attendance as an audience. This is one of the several safety measures implemented against the spread of the coronavirus.
The call to end racism against black people and those of color had been going on for centuries now, and there had been countless protests regarding the movement in the past already. However, recent incidents caused to ignite extreme emotions from people, causing a renewed fervor in protest against racial discrimination.
These re-ignited protests began anew when George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was killed by police officers who responded to a call saying that he had used a counterfeit bill. Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pinned down Floyd to the ground and knelt on his neck for almost eight minutes. The entire incident was caught on camera and was posted on social media, eventually getting extremely viral. Witnesses and Floyd himself repeatedly pleaded for help, but the officer continued to kneel on his neck. Eventually, Floyd died. This then prompted the black community as well as other concerned communities to stand up and continue the call to end racism against people of color.
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