Why Usman Khawaja won’t be wearing shoes featuring human rights slogans for Palestinians in Gaza | Cricket News

Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has decided to abort his plan to have sporting messages of support for Palestinians in Gaza written on his shoes for the first Test against Pakan at Perth’s Optus Stadium, which will start from Thursday.
The Pakan-born opener had shown off messages like “Freedom is a human right” and “All lives are equal”, written on his playing shoes in the colours of the Palestinian flag, during Australian cricket team’s training session on Tuesday ahead of the first Test against Pakan.
When asked journals if he was planning on sporting those messages on his shoes for the match against Pakan, he had replied in the affirmative. But Australian captain Pat Cummins told journals on Wednesday that the player has had a change of heart. “He had some words on his shoes. I think it’s one of our strongest points of our team that everyone has his own personal views and thoughts… I chatted to Ussie (Khawaja) about it briefly today. I don’t think his intention was to make too big of a fuss, but we support him. He said he won’t be (wearing them),” Cummins told journals.
He went on to add: “I think he had ‘all lives are equal’. I don’t think that’s very divisive. I don’t think anyone can have too many complaints about that. All lives are equal. I support that. (But) I think it drew the attention to the ICC rules … which I don’t know if he was across them beforehand.”
What changed Khawaja’s mind about wearing shoes with messages of support for people in Gaza?
It appears that Khawaja was reminded Cricket Australia about the International Cricket Council rules.
While Cricket Australia said on Wednesday that they backed Khawaja’s right to express his support for the people of Gaza, they went on to add: “We support the right of our players to express personal opinions, but the ICC has rules in place which prohibit the display of personal messages which we expect the players to uphold.”
According to the figures made available Gaza’s health minry, Israel’s assault on Gaza, which started in response to the October 7 attacks carried out Hamas, has killed at least 18,205 Palestinians.
On his social media accounts, Khawaja has been vocal about the issue., Recently, he shared a video on Instagram from UNICEF with the comment: “Do people not care about innocent humans being killed? Or is it the colour of their skin that makes them less important? Or the religion they practice? These things should be irrelevant if you truly believe that ‘we are all equal.’”
What does the ICC Code of Conduct say?
The ICC, in its Code of Conduct, prohibits cricketers from wearing, displaying or conveying messages through arm bands or other items on clothing or equipment without prior approval. Messages related to political, religious or racial activities or causes are barred.
The ICC’s latest regulations state: “In determining whether a message is for a ‘political, religious or racial cause’, the starting point is that the ICC and its members acknowledge and agree that cricket should be used as a tool to bring people and communities around the world together and not as a platform to draw attention to potentially divisive political issues, rhetoric or agendas.”
Have other cricketers tried writing messages on their equipment or taking a stand on the field?
Almost 10 years back, England batsman Moeen Ali was disallowed the ICC from sporting wrbands which had the slogans “Save Gaza” and “Free Palestine”. Ali wanted to wear the wrbands in a Test against India in Southampton in 2014. It was initially approved the England and Wales Cricket Board. But the use of the wrbands in the Test were later banned ICC match referee for the contest, Australia’s David Boon.
It must be noted that when India took on Pakan in a T20 World Cup encounter, the Men in Blue had taken the knee as a sign of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.