<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s Usman Khawaja said on Friday that a black armband he wore in the first Test against Pakistan was for a \u201cpersonal bereavement\u201d and not politically motivated, after the star batter was reprimanded by the International Cricket Council (ICC).<\/p>\n
The Pakistan-born opened donned the armband during the team\u2019s 360-run victory in Perth, a move seen at the time as support for people in Gaza, where thousands have been killed in Israeli bombardment.<\/p>\n
He had wanted to wear shoes emblazoned with the hand-written slogans \u201cFreedom is a human right\u201d and \u201cAll lives are equal\u201d during the match, saying he had been hit hard by the Israel-Hamas conflict.<\/p>\n
But Khawaja, who is Muslim, was told that it flouted ICC rules on messages that relate to politics, religion or race. He covered the messages with tape and wore the armband.<\/p>\n
Khawaja told reporters he would take up the reprimand with the ICC and that he only wanted consistency in the application of its rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them it was for a personal bereavement. I never ever stated it was for anything else. The shoes were a different matter, I\u2019m happy to say that,\u201d the 37-year-old said at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the armband (decision) made no sense to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect \u2026 the ICC and the rules and regulations they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just asked – and will be asking them and contesting that they make it fair and equitable for everyone and they have consistency in how they officiate. That\u2019s all I ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n
An ICC spokesman on Thursday said Khawaja had displayed a \u201cpersonal message\u201d against Pakistan without seeking prior approval from Cricket Australia (CA) and the ICC as required.<\/p>\n
Khawaja said players had displayed personal messages during past matches without ICC approval and not been sanctioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys have put stickers on their bats, names on their shoes and all sorts of things in the past without ICC approval and never been reprimanded,\u201d said Khawaja, adding he would not wear the armband again.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my point of view, that consistency hasn\u2019t been done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khawaja has been vocal on social media with calls for an end to the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 20,000 Gazans have died since the start of the conflict with Israel, according to the Palestinian health ministry.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight on until the eradication of Hamas, the group that sent fighters over the border into southern Israel on October 7, taking some 240 hostages and killing 1,200 people.<\/p>\n
Cricket Australia did not endorse Khawaja\u2019s boots or his armband but CEO Nick Hockley said it was working with him and the ICC to see whether there was a \u201creally respectful way\u201d the batsman could share his message on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the subject now of ICC consideration,\u201d Hockley told a press conference alongside Khawaja.<\/p>\n
The second test against Pakistan starts at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The ICC has been selective about allowing players to wear political messages during matches.<\/p>\n
West Indies players were permitted to wear \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 logos on their shirts during a test series against England in 2020.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s Moeen Ali, however, was banned from wearing wristbands with messages \u2018Save Gaza\u2019 and \u2018Free Palestine\u2019 during a home test against India in 2014.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia\u2019s Usman Khawaja said on Friday that a black armband he wore in the first Test against Pakistan was for a \u201cpersonal bereavement\u201d and not politically motivated, after the star batter was reprimanded by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The Pakistan-born opened donned the armband during the team\u2019s 360-run victory in Perth, a move seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/221328029c29a84.jpg?r=132809","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}