If Khawaja was a politician or a diplomat,his message would and should be interrogated for extra layers of meaning and hidden implications.
But he is not. He is a sportsman,with a platform and a history of using it thoughtfully.As a person of colour,he’s been outspoken about racism and his experience of it. “Luckily for me,I never lived in a world where inequality was life or death,” he says. This time,he’s speaking up as a Muslim.
His Australian teammates empathise with his perspective.When Australia beat India for the World Test Championship in London in June,they forewent the traditional spray of champagne on the victory dais so as not to discomfit Khawaja. Somehow,that triumph was no less satisfying for their restraint.
Khawaja is hardly a provocateur or rabblerouser. If allowed to wear his shoes now,he would be making his point without shoving it in anyone’s face or ramming it down anyone’s throat. He is not staging a sit-in or trailing a banner across the sky. He’s wearing a pair of cricket shoes. He’s baring his sole.
In a social media post,Khawaja was slightly more direct. “Do people not care about innocent humans being killed?” he asked. “Or is the colour of their skin that makes them less important? Or the religion they practice? (sic) These things should be irrelevant if you truly believe that ‘we are all equal’.”
Again,using temperate language,he has a case. When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago,the world pretty much stood as one with Ukraine,and its national colours became a kind of universal symbol of solidarity. The political framework might have been different,the aggressor more obvious and detestable,but the bottom line is the same:too many people were and are dying needlessly and too many others have had their lives destroyed,too.
In that context,are a couple of slogans about freedom and equality scrawled onto a pair of cricket boots so beyond the pale?
Khawaja says he is not giving up,but he is proceeding through the prescribed channels. Does this mean he lacks the strength of his convictions? Hardly. It means he is being careful not to make it all about himself. He knows how easily his profile could rebound on him. He wants to make it about them.
Meantime,let’s not hear again that dirge about how sport and politics shouldn’t mix. It’s so discredited. A risible principle anyway,it is how honoured more in the breach. And that’s a good thing,too. Sport is politics. It’s entertainment,yes,but it’s also a window into ourselves.
In the past few years alone,sportspeople and sports bodies have taken stances on the war in Ukraine,on human rights abuses in Qatar,on the oppression of gay people there,and in Australia on gay marriage,racism and most recently the Voice referendum.
Not all agree,not all the sports-loving public agree with them,not all the protests have succeeded,but the thrust always is towards amplifying the cause of a gentler polity. This is probably not accidental;athletes of all people spend lifetimes face-to-face with an unvarnished image of themselves and so to deny the humanity in the other would be to deny it in themselves.
But if you really can’t stand Khawaja’s shoes,watch his hands instead. They’re still worth it.
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