Holding blasts ICC for ‘hypocrisy’ over Khawaja saga

Former West Indies pacer Michael Holding blasted the ICC for reprimanding Australian batter Usman Khawaja for wearing a black armband during the Perth Test against Pakistan in support of the civilians of Gaza, calling out the international body for its hypocrisy.

"I have been following the Khawaja fiasco and I cannot say I'm surprised by the ICC's stance," Holding told The Australian.

 "If it had been most other organisations that showed some semblance of consistency with their attitude and behaviour on issues I could claim surprise, but not them," he added.

Holding drew parallels with ICC's stance in the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQ+ movement, where the organisation didn't hesitate to show its support.

But when Khawaja wanted to wear shoes with the words "All lives are equal" and "Freedom is a human right" written on them during the first Test, he was informed it would in violation of ICC's rules and had to back down.

After that, the opener wore a black armband in the match with no messaging, but was still charged by the ICC.

Khawaja then sent an application to the ICC to display a sticker of a black dove with an olive branch for Tuesday's Boxing Day Test against Pakistan with a reference to the Article one of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Even though the cricket authorities in Australia had no issues with it, ICC denied Khawaja's application.

"Once again, they show their hypocrisy and lack of moral standing as an organisation," said holding.

"The ICC regulations say re-messaging 'approval shall not be granted for messages which relate to political, religious or racial activities or causes'. So how the f*** people were allowed to take the knee for BLM and stumps were covered with LGBTQ colours?"