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England and West Indies players take the knee in solidarity before start of first Test
England’s cricketers took the knee for 30 seconds before the start of the first Test at the Ageas Bowl to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Telegraph Sport revealed on Tuesday that players from England and West Indies would take a knee for an extended period of 30 seconds before play and they carried out their pledge moments before Kemar Roach bowled the first ball of the game in the first ever Test match to be played behind closed doors.
West Indies players wore black gloves on their left hands as they took the knee in their fielding positions. England's opening batsmen, Dom Sibley and Rory Burns, knelt down on one knee at the crease. Umpires Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough, the first two Englishmen to stand in a home Test for more than 20 years, also took a knee.
The England players not on the field, reserves from both teams and coaches made the gesture beyond the boundary, just in front of the pavilion.
Action was delayed until after lunch due to rain and before play there was also a minute's silence to remember victims of the coronavirus and to mark the passing of Sir Everton Weekes.
The two teams wore Black Lives Matter logos on their shirts for this match. The West Indies team also had the logo on a flag hanging down in front of their dressing room.
The Sky Sports commentators are wearing the Black Lives Matter badges for this match but not those working for the BBC due to impartiality rules.
The decision to take a knee follows the announcement on Tuesday by the England & Wales Cricket Board of a new initiative to increase the number of black coaches in the game and diversity at board level. Tom Harrison, the chief executive, admitted he had heard some “uncomfortable truths in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement” after a series of black English cricketers spoke publicly about the racism they faced in the game.
