HOLDING CLAIMS CRICKET LACKS FOOTBALL’S BACKBONE ON RACISM

MICHAEL HOLDING has accused English cricket’s new anti-discrimination ‘moment of unity’ of diluting the Black Lives Matter message. On the day Lancashire became embroiled in the controversy over historic abusive tweets, the West Indian great praised Gareth Southgate’s footballers for continuing to take a knee. But he was critical of cricket’s approach, which consists of the players wearing shirts branded with messages aimed at seven types of discrimination. ‘That is not supporting Black Lives Matter,’ Holding told Sky Sports. ‘Because what you are doing there is, when I say Black Lives Matter, you are telling me all lives matter. Gareth Southgate and the England team, I applaud what they are doing. They are getting booed, but they are showing backbone. They are showing intestinal fortitude.’ Meanwhile, Lancashire are investigating after the Lancashire Telegraph uncovered over 50 tweets said to contain ‘racist, homophobic, anti-disability or misogynistic content’ by five players.