The Australian men's cricket team will do a 'barefoot circle' at the start of every international series against Indian cricket team to express their support against racism while also celebrating indigenous culture. Australia's Test vice-captain Pat Cummins announced this on Monday. Cummins said that this decision was made after mutual discussion among the team. The Australian team did not have a 'knee down' in the series against England in September, after which Michael Holding criticized the Australian cricket team.
"We've decided to do the Barefoot Circle. We're going to look at doing it at the start of each series and it's a pretty easy decision for us. As soon as you try and learn a little bit about it, it just becomes a really easy decision. Not only as a sport, but we as people are absolutely against racism," Cummins said as per ESPNcricinfo.
"We can probably put our hands up and say we haven't done enough in the past and we want to get better, so this is one small thing we're going to introduce this summer," he added.
India Tour Of Australia: What is a barefoot circle?
The Australian women's cricket team started the tradition of gathering barefoot on the pitch. The team did this when Ashleigh Gardner joined the team. The 'Barefoot Circles', used to spread message against racism, was seen in the Women's Big Bash and most recently in the Sheffield Shield Trophy last week. Pat Cummins said the men's team would do the same during India vs Australia series. India's tour of Australia will begin from November 27 with a three-match one-day international series.
When Australian cricket team was publicly criticized for not 'taking the knee' to support Black Lives Matter movement
The Australian team was publicly criticized by former West Indies captain and bowler Michael Holding for not taking the knee during the ODI series in England in September. The Australian team has now decided to launch a campaign against racism.
"In addition, we're going to work a lot on our education. We're trying to learn as much about our history in Australia in particular moving forward and look forward to doing the Barefoot Circle. I thought NAIDOC week last week in the Sheffield Shield that was quite a powerful opening day. And of course in the WBBL, seeing a lot of great acts there as well," the 27-year-old said.
India Tour Of Australia 2020-21 | Everything you need to know!
The India vs Australia series will begin with an ODI series, starting from 27 November. During this time, the two teams will play a series consisting of three ODIs, three-match T20 series and finally a four-match Test series. The ODI and T20 series will be held in Sydney and Canberra. The Border Gavaskar Trophy (test series) will begin with a day-night test in Adelaide from 17 December. During this period, Virat Kohli will be able to play only one Test match as he will then return to India. The captain of Team India will become father during this time.