The Usman Khawaja vs ICC encounter seems to be a bigger one than Australia vs Pakistan, at Perth, which started on Thursday. After it was revealed that Khawaja was going to don shoes with messages supporting people in Palestine & Gaza, there was a lot of reaction coming in from ex-players, the current ones, and Cricket Australia.
The CA had taken a strong stance saying, “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.”
But right before the start of the first Test, Khawaja has called the stance by ICC, ‘unfair’. While speaking with Alison Mitchell of 7Cricket, he said, “So I find it a bit unfair that they’ve come down on me at this point in time where there’s definitely been precedent in the past.”
On being asked, if there happenings of outside will have any bearing on his performance on the field, Khawaja said, “It’s similar. I’m not thinking too much. I’ll go out there and do my own prep. And then I step over the rope, and it’ll be game on, no different for me. Just go out there and watch the ball. Sometimes you score runs, sometimes you don’t. Hopefully, when I do go out there, I do, and take some catches.”
What is noteworthy is, that Khawaja, during the entire duration of the pre-match chat, was without his shoes, as if trying to make a statement.
Khawaja says, ‘There’s Not Much He Can Do’
Speaking ahead of the day’s play on Fox Cricket this time, Khawaja further substantiated his point. He said he can fight appropriately. “But at the end of the day, I can’t really do anything about it. All I can do is fight it appropriately and however I can. I’m not going to get emotional. There’s already enough emotion in this. I’m not doing this for any other reason than to spread the word and to speak for those who don’t have a voice. I always came in with good intentions and I’ll leave with good intentions.”
