'It has shocked me how heated things have got' - Graeme Smith after death threats for supporting 'Black Lives Matter' movement

Former South African captain and current Cricket South Africa’s director Graeme Smith extended his support for “Black Lives Matter”, a global movement aimed at the eradication of racism from the world. The former cricketer was subjected to “enormous amount of abuse” and “death threats” for supporting the BLM movement at the ‘3TCricket’ match played in Centurion for the Solidarity Cup on July 18.

Smith, along with 24 players, match officials, administrators and commentators had taken a knee and raised a fist at the ground for showing their support to this revolution against injustice. All the people present on the match field were seen sporting an armband with the BLM logo.

Though many Proteas cricketers showed their solidarity with BLM, some players had also expressed their displeasure with the support of the BLM movement. Speaking about the same, Smith said that he is shocked with the way things have heated up and the kind of negativity and disappointment that is there in people’s lives.

“It has shocked me how heated things have got. I get that in South Africa we’ve got so many issues and in some ways it is felt like we are bearing the brunt for government not having delivered on a number of things over the years and the frustration of that,” the CSA’s director said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“It’s been a really challenging experience. All of us have found ourselves in a really heated space. We’ve taken an immense amount of abuse, death threats. It’s been an eye-opening experience. It has shocked me how heated things have got,” he stated

Graeme Smith defends Lungi Ngidi

Following the global revolution against racism, Proteas pacer Lungi Ngidi had empathized with the black people and raised his voice in solidarity with BLM. However, the cricketer was thrashed brutally by fellow cricketers Pat Symcox, Boeta Dippenaar, Rudi Steyn and Brian McMillan for his stance.

Back then also Smith had supported Ngidi saying that every person has a right to express his thoughts. The former South African once again backed Lungi saying that there was nothing wrong in stating an opinion.

“Lungi, in my mind, said nothing wrong. He expressed an opinion – he didn’t make a statement – and expressed the fact that the team was going to get together and have a conversation and in no right did he deserve to be attacked. What happened to him and the way the guys came at him is entirely wrong.” said Smith.

Smith also expressed his delight in seeing the unity of the team on the matter of eradication of the deep-rooted social malaise in racism. The South African players would also be taking part in a culture camp at the Kruger National Park this week to discuss team identity and values.

On this, the 39-year-old reacted saying, “Within the space, we’ve handled it extremely maturely. We got together, we listened, the conversation was open, people shared and we decided to support each other in this movement,”