T20 World Cup 2021: England to take a knee in their Super 12 match against the West Indies

The England cricket team will take a knee against the West Indies in the Group 1 Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup 2021 on October 23 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Three Lions’ skipper Eoin Morgan confirmed the same. Back in 2020, George Floyd’s demise at the hands of a policeman added fuel to fire to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.

Since then, a number of current and former cricketers have been vocal about the racism across several fields. Back in July 2020, West Indies toured England for a Test series as international cricket resumed in the COVID-19 pandemic. The players of the two teams took a knee before the start of the Test matches.

The Brits followed the step during their limited-overs series against Ireland as well. As far as the World Cup is concerned, the Papua New Guinea players took a knee prior to their game against Scotland on Tuesday, October 19 and now England will continue the trend.

Eoin Morgan opens up

“We have heard from the West Indies that they will be taking a knee and we will be joining them for the first game,” Morgan was quoted as saying in a video conference on Tuesday, October 19.

Previously, England fast bowler Chris Jordan also spoke about taking a knee during their game against the Caribbean team.

“We’ll discuss it and if people feel strongly about, we’ll definitely do it. On the flipside, if we don’t, then we won’t,” Jordan said.

Earlier, former West Indies cricketer Michael Holding expressed his displeasure after the England players stopped taking a knee following their series against Ireland in 2020.

“Games going on from there, we’ve been speaking to the ICC about the potential moment of unity before the game that we’ve been doing as part of our own piece at home. It hasn’t been cleared up whether that’s a possibility yet,” he added.

“Now that the West Indies team has gone home, that doesn’t mean that you still shouldn’t be respecting the message and exactly what it stands for,” Holding had said.

Recently, Holding also lashed out at the ECB after they called off their tour of Pakistan in the month of October.

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