30 former South Africa cricketers issue statement in support of ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement

30 former South Africa cricketers, including the likes of Vernon Philander, Ashwell Prince, JP Duminy, Paul Adams, Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs on Tuesday, July 14, issued a statement where they came out in support of the ‘Black Live Matter’ movement. Recently, Lungi Ngidi, the young Proteas right-arm fast bowler, was vocal about the BLM campaign.

Boeta Dippenaar and Pat Symcox, thereafter, lashed out at Ngidi for voicing his opinions. However, the 30 retired South Africa players threw their weight behind the speedster. All the cricketers have signed a statement, asking the cricket board to not be complacent about the matter.

South Africa cricketers come forward   

“We commend Lungi Ngidi for supporting Black Lives Matter – and we’d like to add our support for it too. We note the criticism aimed at Lungi for expressing his views and we hope that Cricket South Africa (CSA), together with fellow cricketers – both present and past – will come out strongly in support of BLM.

“We note too that the most outspoken criticism directed at Ngidi has come via former players such as Pat Symcox, Boeta Dippenaar, Rudi Steyn, Brian McMillan and others, and we urge that their views be challenged,” a statement, published on Sport 24, mentioned.

The players mentioned that they weren’t shocked when Symcox and Dippenaar expressed their displeasure over Ngidi’s comments. Dippenaar said that Ngidi should be concerned about the death of white farmers in the country and said that ‘all live matter’.

“Given South Africa’s well-known past, black cricketers have borne the brunt of subtle and overt racist behaviour for many years, including from some colleagues… there is a need to understand how white privilege feeds into the perpetuation of these old attitudes and assumptions,” the statement further read.

The issue of racism has been doing the rounds ever since George Floyd’s demise in the United States of America (USA). Thereafter, Darren Sammy also said that he was being addressed by a racial slur when he played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Recently, during West Indies’ opening Test against England at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, former fast bowler Michael Holding also delivered a strong speech on the ever-lasting matter of racism.