Hardik Pandya’s gesture of taking a knee in support of #BlackLivesMatter has left Twitter divided.
On Sunday, 25 October, the 27-year-old all-rounder took a knee after reaching his half-century against the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Pandya also became the first player to do so in the IPL.
Earlier, a few days ago, West Indies Test Captain and Sunrisers Hyderabad all-rounder Jason Holder had said that he was disappointed with the fact that no one had taken a stand for the issue in the IPL.
However, Pandya’s gesture met with mixed reactions from the netizens on Twitter. Some of the users said that the gesture was more of a performative reaction and ignorant of the issues plaguing our country. Many were of the view that racism isn’t really a major issue in India and was West-centric. The outrage was more since people alleged that cricketers don’t stand in support of the issues of minorities and less privileged in their own country.
While many asked if any such political gestures were allowed on the field referring to the former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s incident. In the 2019 Cricket World Cup, International Cricket Council had asked MS Dhoni to not use the gloves which had the ‘Balidan’ sign of the Indian Army. Many users even urged the BCCI to take cognisance of this matter.
On the other hand, a few users applauded Pandya’s gesture and said that it took a long time for someone to take a knee in the IPL. They praised him for raising his voice and said that it should have happened a long ago.
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