Image Credit: Gareth Copley-ICC via Getty Images 
South African cricket players have been ordered to ‘take a knee’ before their team’s T20 World Cup matches despite some of the players complaining that it violates their religious beliefs.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) issued the directive last night after some of the players refused to perform the pro-BLM virtue signaling gesture before a match against Australia.
“South African players of color knelt and raised a fist, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje and wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen put their hands behind their backs and maintained a distance from their playing cohort,” reports Breitbart.
The CSA announced it had “unanimously agreed to issue a directive requiring all Proteas players to adopt a consistent and united stance against racism by “taking the knee” prior to the start of their remaining World Cup matches.”
Cricket South Africa believes success both on the field and beyond the boundary will be guaranteed if all South Africans stand united to build a new innings based on the pillars of inclusivity, access and excellence.
Full statement: https://t.co/j9MDE1Ct1Z pic.twitter.com/WjRlZ8SmUG
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) October 26, 2021
The body said it was enforcing the order due to “the lack of support for the initiative” for the “BLM initiative,” especially given “South Africa’s history.”
That phrasing is interesting given controversy over professional football players in England taking the knee, with advocates claiming it had nothing to do with the Black Lives Matter organization and was merely a non-political stand against racism.
The Courier-Mail reported that some South African players refused to ‘take a knee’ because the gesture was “against their religious beliefs” and that “a good Christian man only takes a knee for two people – his wife and his God.”
The gesture was widely adopted by professional sports teams in the aftermath of last year’s deadly riots following the police killing of George Floyd.
Meanwhile, spectators attending the T20 tournament were made to isolate in what some described as “sheep pens” to safeguard against the spread of COVID.
The T20 cricket World Cup. Sheep pens for ….. the sheep #sheep pic.twitter.com/rbrAfVvinE
— Gillian McKeith (@GillianMcKeith) October 23, 2021
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