Australian team to do 'barefoot circles' to support BLM ahead of India series

The Australian cricket team has decided to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter (BLM), a movement which started with the passing away of George Floyd, a black resident of Minneapolis in the United States, due to a white cop. The men’s cricket team will stand in a circle with bare feet at the start of the India tour of Australia.

Australia will be up against India in the three-match ODI series followed by as many T20Is and a four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy, starting from November 27 in Sydney. Speaking about the same , Australia’s vice-captain in One Day Internationals and longest format of the game, Pat Cummins stated that their gesture is to support the indigenous people and marginalised groups.

The seamer further added that though there are various ways through which one can showcase their support towards BLM, the Australian players have together decided to stand in a circle bare feet.

This is one small thing we’re going to introduce this summer: Pat Cummins

“In Australia, we think the most, I guess, marginalised group is the first nations people and the indigenous peoples. And we think the barefoot circle’s a great way to celebrate them,” Cummins told reporters in a video call as quoted by The Hindu.

“Some people might want to take the knee, some people might want to show it in different ways and absolutely we’re all for that. But we’ve kind of come together as a team and think this is the best way we can demonstrate anti-racism as well as celebrating the indigenous culture here,” he added.

Australia’s men cricket team is following the footsteps of their Women’s team who had formed a barefoot circle with New Zealand players in Brisbane before the limited-overs series in September. The pacer Cummins reckoned that the players would now try to connect more with the culture of the country. This is their first step towards showing solidarity with the history of the nation.

“You could probably put our hands up and say we haven’t done enough in the past and we want to get better, so this is one small thing we’re going to introduce this summer,” he said.