I have seen some of the messages my good friend has received and they are absolutely horrendous - people need calling outEoin Morgan took me aside at a training session before the ODI team’s first practice match a fortnight ago and asked me to be his vice-captain for this series against Ireland, which starts on Thursday. I have been absolutely buzzing about it ever since.People might think phrases like “it being an honour” are just trotted out at times like this but it genuinely is. It means a huge amount to me and especially from a captain like Morgs. Growing up playing cricket I never thought I’d one day be able to say I was vice-captain of my country and...
I lost my career when I went to prison but now work with young players. They listen to me because they can relate to meClose your eyes and picture growing up in poverty with a lack of opportunities. Even with your eyes open, it’s difficult to understand if you’ve never witnessed it or gone through this yourself.Growing up in south London, I always wanted to be a footballer. But maybe that was because besides a career in music, that was the only measure of wealth and success in our community – you never saw black people on television otherwise. A lack of male role models at home and in wider society able to provide guidance and teach you the fundamentals...
Viewers watching England’s first Test of the summer were given an uncompromising alternative to cakes and sixesWest Indies were flying a Black Lives Matter flag from their balcony. It was one of the first things you saw as the cameras panned across the empty ground on the opening morning of the opening match of this strange and delayed cricket season.Later, when they came out on to the ground, you could see their players were wearing one black glove each. Both teams took the knee before the start of play and as they did it West Indies raised their gloved fists in salute, a clear, conscious echo of the protests made by the sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith as they...
In the Premier League 35% of players are black but there is nowhere near that level in managerial or leadership positionsThe Premier League has restarted with every player wearing a Black Lives Matter badge on his sleeve, and with those words replacing the names on their backs. At the start of each game every player, referee and member of staff has taken a knee. It has been incredibly powerful and moving and left me speechless, understanding that the eyes of the world were watching an unprecedented statement of unity against racism during what has been an unprecedented time.As a symbolic gesture of support for the fight for racial equality it is a huge statement by the Premier League, for me...
Violent protests on Saturday were painfully familiar and the problem could increase as anti-immigrant rhetoric continuesTwenty years ago this week, more than 1,000 England supporters were arrested and deported for fighting and disorderly behaviour at Euro 2000. The Guardian, which reported they had attacked French, Turkish and North African supporters in Brussels before scrapping with Germans and Turks in Charleroi, called it a “shameful new low”. In truth it felt merely like a variation on a decades-old theme. Same ultra violence and rabid nationalism, different location.Afterwards, as politicians began the rush to condemn, the Labour peer Roy Hattersley uttered a stark truth. Those in power – and parts of the media – were also to blame. “Football provides the opportunity...