ICC throws weight behind diversity in cricket
The International Cricket Council has voiced its solidarity with the movement against racism that has engulfed the world following the death of African-American George Floyd, as he was choked death by a police officer while the former was handcuffed. The ICC has now come out and expressed its support towards embracing diversity with a beautiful message.
On Friday, the ICC tweeted the video of Jofra Archer winning the World Cup in 2019 for England, with a message on diversity -
Without diversity, cricket is nothing.
— ICC (@ICC) June 5, 2020
Without diversity, you don't get the full picture. pic.twitter.com/kHfELJIJbt
After England won the ICC World cup in 2019, captain Eoin Morgan had spoken about how diversity in fact brought the team together. “It actually epitomizes our team. Quite diverse backgrounds and cultures and guys grow up in different countries and to actually find humor in the situation we were in at times was pretty cool,” Morgan had gushed.
With the global climate following the despicable act and the protests in the U.S., former West Indian captain Darren Sammy had urged the ICC to raise their voice in support. “Right now, if the cricket world not standing against the injustice against people of color after seeing that last video of that foot down the next of my brother you are also part of the problem,” Sammy had said on Tuesday. In a tweet urging the ICC to support the cause of #Blacklivesmatter, Sammy had tweeted -
. @ICC and all the other boards are you guys not seeing what’s happening to ppl like me? Are you not gonna speak against the social injustice against my kind. This is not only about America. This happens everyday #BlackLivesMatter now is not the time to be silent. I wanna hear u
— Daren Sammy (@darensammy88) June 2, 2020
Sammy’s West Indian teammate and RCB legend Chris Gayle had also put out a powerful message on his twitter account on Monday-
✊???✊? pic.twitter.com/kyJP7GxnlK
— Chris Gayle (@henrygayle) June 1, 2020
The support started pouring in from all quarters of the cricketing world as Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara noted, "The activism in America against systemic racism and injustice is a powerful lesson to us all.” Former West Indian pacer Ian Bishop echoed similar sentiments, "The pain is real. People are crying out to be heard."
The International Cricket Council has long adopted a stringent policy against racial abuse of any form. Former CEO of ICC, Dave Richardson had warned before the 2019 World cup, "Over the last 12 months there has been a significant improvement and generally, teams have been very well behaved. Any kind of racism, homophobic comments there will be zero tolerance for and the code of conduct will apply. Twelve months ago we introduced more severe penalties for this type of sledging and language and we will implement it in the same fashion in this event.”
[Cricbuzz and PTI inputs]
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