IPL 2020: Hardik Pandya takes a knee in support of Black Lives Matter

The Mumbai Indians all-rounder becomes the first player in the ongoing IPL to take a knee in support of the anti-racism movement.

Hardik Pandya takes the knee during his unbeaten knock of 60 against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. - BCCI/IPL

Mumbai Indians all-rounder Hardik Pandya became the first player in the ongoing Indian Premier League to take a knee in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.

Pandya’s gesture came during the game against Rajasthan Royals here on Sunday.

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The all-rounder smashed 60 run from just 21 balls. After reaching his half century in the 19th over, he went down on a knee with his right arm raised to show solidarity with the movement against racism.

West Indies all-rounder and Mumbai’s stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard responded by raising his right fist.

After the match Pandya even tweeted a picture of himself with the caption “#BlackLivesMatter.”

 

Last week, West Indies Test captain Jason Holder, who plays for the Sunrisers Hyderbad, had expressed his disappointment over absence of the anti-racism stance.

“To be honest, I haven’t had one conversation up here around it (BLM). Sometimes it seems it has gone unnoticed, which is a sad thing. I guess it’s for us to re-highlight the importance of it, for people to understand what is happening in the world,” Holder had said.

The ‘taking a knee’ gesture started in the West Indies’ Test series in England this summer in protest against racism after African-American George Floyd was killed by an on-duty white police officer in Minneapolis. But it was later discontinued for the subsequent visits to the U.K. by Pakistan and Australia.