New Zealand head coach Gary Stead on Wednesday (November 25) revealed that the hosts will meet with their West Indies counterparts on Thursday to discuss what action they will take to show their support to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement during the upcoming bilateral series.
In July-August 2020, West Indies and England teams took a knee and wore ‘Black Lives Matter’ logos on their shirts during their Test series as part of global protests against racism, but now the English team decided to not repeat the gesture in the upcoming series against South Africa.
On the other hand, New Zealand Cricket has decided to support the BLM movement and even display anti-racism messages around grounds during the bilateral series comprising three T20Is and two Tests starting Friday, 27 Nov, in Auckland.
Stead told reporters in Auckland, “What happens in terms of taking a knee or anything like that will be discussed with West Indies and I am sure we will let you know but the first thing is we are meeting with them to make sure we understand how they feel about it and understand their point of view.”
The Kiwi coach further added, “It is part of our education and understanding of their thoughts but in New Zealand, we have been working with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission as well around their Give Nothing To Racism campaign, so we are sort of pairing up with them in terms of our own message around that and making sure that we have our own stance on those things.”
Noteworthy, Australia pacer Pat Cummins said his team would stand in a circle with bare feet at the start of the ODI series against India on 27 November in support of the global anti-racism movement.
(With Reuters Inputs)
