{"id":353568,"date":"2023-12-13T02:34:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T03:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=353568"},"modified":"2023-12-13T04:02:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T04:02:09","slug":"no-right-khawajas-planned-protest-causes-stir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=353568","title":{"rendered":"'No right': Khawaja's planned protest causes stir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Australian all-rounder Simon O'Donnell has come down hard on Usman Khawaja<\/a>'s plans to display a pro-Palestine message on his footwear for the first Test against Pakistan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Khawaja was pictured wearing shoes which featured messages reading "Freedom is a human right" and "All lives are equal"<\/a> during a training session on Tuesday, and confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald that he intended to wear the shoes in the Perth Test starting Thursday.<\/p>\n

O'Donnell, who played six Tests for Australia, condemned Khawaja's planned silent protest.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Club boss blames 'provocative' ref for vicious assault<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Stubborn' Mitchell Johnson broke 'unwritten' rule<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Khawaja to reveal Gaza message in first Test<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"I fully respect Usman Khawaja's beliefs personally \u2026 he should be able to state his beliefs on his own platform," he told SEN.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"But while he's representing Australia he has no right, nil, zero, to bring his personal beliefs and instill those onto others."<\/p>\n

O'Donnell's view echoed that of former Australian paceman Rodney Hogg.<\/p>\n

"We the public of Australia want to see our players playing for Australia and not making political statements," Hogg wrote in a statement on his Facebook account.<\/p>\n

"Cricket Australia review their contracts otherwise they will turn supporters away from the game."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Khawaja, a proud Muslim man, has been outspoken on the Israel-Palestine conflict on his personal social media accounts in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old opener's plans for a silent protest were strongly backed by Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"As Federal Sport Minister I have always advocated for athletes having the right to a voice and to speak up on matters important to them," she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Usman Khawaja is a great athlete and a great Australian. He should have every right to speak up on matters that are important to him.<\/p>\n

"He has done so in a peaceful and respectful way. He has done so as an individual and expressed an individual opinion that does not compromise the Australian cricket team's obligations to the ICC."<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether Khawaja will be allowed to display the messages on his shoes, with the ICC \ufeffhistorically frowning upon players promoting political messages.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the England all-rounder Moeen Ali was asked to remove wristbands with the phrases "Save Gaza" and "Free Palestine" during a Test match against India, of which former Aussie opener David Boon was match referee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Australian all-rounder Simon O'Donnell has come down hard on Usman Khawaja's plans to display a pro-Palestine message on his footwear for the first Test […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=353568"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353573,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353568\/revisions\/353573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/353570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=353568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=353568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=353568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}