(Reuters) – England are hopeful of sending out a strong message against all forms of discrimination before their Twenty20 World Cup meeting with Australia on Saturday, skipper Eoin Morgan said on Friday.
England’s players have taken a knee to show their support in the battle against racism before victories over West Indies and Bangladesh at the tournament so far.
British media reported that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had turned down England’s request to wear special T-shirts displaying a message of unity before the Bangladesh match as it would go against kit regulations.
“Certainly, from our side of things, not being allowed to have our moment of unity before a game is just something we’ve talked about during the two matches that we’ve played,” Morgan told a news conference.
“Later this afternoon, we’re going to talk about it again because if we’re not allowed to take our stance against all discrimination, we need to try and find something else that makes a difference for this period of time.”
South Africa’s Quinton de Kock apologised nL1N2RO0IC on Thursday for pulling out of their win over West Indies after rejecting a Cricket South Africa directive that players must take a knee in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
“We’ve talked about a collective message being powerful,” Morgan said of England’s plans.
“We didn’t want to commit to anything unless everybody wanted to do it because that’s the best way to raise awareness, educate and have it come across as a powerful message.
“We’re quite restricted as to what we can do in ICC events so there’s a chance that might not happen.”
Morgan said he looked forward to a tough test against Australia, who have also won their opening two matches against South Africa and Sri Lanka.
“It’s probably going to be one of our most difficult games of this group stage. Australia are a strong side,” Morgan said.
“Our level of performance and intensity has been very good and the challenge is to continue that for our next three games in pursuit of getting to that next stage.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
