England all-rounder Moeen Ali has been told he cannot wear wristbands that read “Save Gaza” and “Free Palestine” for the remainder of the third Test against India.
According to Andy Wilson of The Guardian, Ali was cleared to wear the bands by England as they believed he was making a humanitarian statement, not a political one. But the player has since been told by the International Cricket Council’s match referee David Boon he must not wear the bands.
The ICC issued the following statement ahead of Day 3 of the third Test, per Wilson's piece:
The ICC Equipment and Clothing Regulations do not permit the display of messages that relate to political, religious or racial activities or causes during an international match.
Moeen Ali was told by the Match Referee that whilst he is free to express his views on such causes away from the cricket field, he is not permitted to wear the wristbands on the field of play and warned not to wear the bands again during an international match.
The ICC looks set to come in for plenty of criticism after this particular move and has already been accused of hypocrisy. After all, the England players will have “Help For Heroes” charity logos emblazoned on their shirts during Day 3 of the Test, as noted here by Samuel Luckhurst from Huffington Post UK:
And things could yet get worse for Ali. If the ICC feels as though he has breached its regulations, he could be hit with a level-one contravention and a subsequent fine of 50 percent of his match fee, per Mike Dawes of the Mail Online .
England have backed Ali over the bands, and when it was announced that the matter was to be investigated they claimed their man had "done nothing wrong," per BBC Sport.
The bands are in reference to the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian militant group Hamas . There has been a spike in Gaza this week and according to BBC Sport, more than 1,030 Palestinians have perished since the start of this latest spell of unrest.
The ICC will come under heavy criticism for this particular move, and they must come out and clarify their stance on what is and what isn't acceptable at this juncture. To allow England to lend their support for a cause they are unified behind and not afford Ali the opportunity to express his own support for something he believes in does seem contradictory and absurd.
//from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1mY7njr
via IFTTT July 29, 2014 at 02:20AM
0 comments:
Post a Comment