Australia captain Pat Cummins confirmed on Wednesday that opener Usman Khawaja will not wear his shoes emblazoned with slogans in support of Palestinians, amid the Gaza-Israel conflict, during the first Test against Pakistan which begins tomorrow in Perth.
Khawaja could face sanctions from the International Cricket Council (ICC), which includes being banned from taking the field, reprimand for a first offence or a 75 per cent match-fee fine, for wearing the shoes.
Khawaja’s shoes sported the slogans “Freedom is a human right” and “All lives are equal” at Australia’s training session on Tuesday. He has also said yesterday that he will wear the shoes during the first Test against Pakistan.
Players and officials are not allowed to display messages on their clothing or equipment unless given the nod in advance by their board or the ICC.
“Any clothing or equipment that does not comply with these regulations is strictly prohibited,” the ICC regulations state. “In particular, no logo shall be permitted to be displayed on cricket clothing or cricket equipment, other than a national logo, a commercial logo, an event logo, a manufacturer’s logo, a player’s bat logo, a charity logo or a non-commercial logo as provided in these regulations.
“In addition, where any match official becomes aware of any clothing or equipment that does not comply with these regulations, he shall be authorised to prevent the offending person from taking the field of play (or to order them from the field of play, if appropriate) until the non-compliant clothing or equipment is removed or appropriately covered up.”
However, Cummins said at his pre-match press conference that Khawaja was probably unaware about ICC rules in this regard. Although, he admitted that the message on left-hander’s shoes was not divisive.
“I think it is one of our strongest points as a team that everyone has their own passionate views and individual thoughts,” Cummins said. “I chatted to Uzzy [Usman] briefly about it today, and yeah, I don’t think his intention is to make too much of a fuss, but we support him.
“[The ICC] drew attention to the ICC rules, which I don’t know if Uzzy was across beforehand. Uzzy doesn’t want to make too big a fuss. On his shoes he had ‘all lives are equal’ [written on them], I think that’s not very divisive, I don’t think anyone could really have too many complaints about that.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Cricket Australia also issued a statement backing up the ICC regulations: “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.”