ICC's stand on armbands: Is the criticism of Indian Cricket team justified?
Reeling from India’s defeat on Sunday night, various parties took to Twitter to raise questions on one of the most trivial issues. The insults were directed at the fact that the Indian cricket team had not worn black armbands to mourn the killing of six policemen by militants in Kashmir.
The ‘sensationalist’ news agency, Times Now, started a hashtag on the social media site, “#CricketersForgetBraves”, bringing to fore the issue with little or no prior research.
The Indian Hockey Team, that had won against Pakistan on the same day of the cricket team’s loss to their Pakistani counterparts, donned black armbands, mourning the tragedy in Kashmir.
Using this information, the media house interviewed Indian cricket players on why they did not wear armbands, who chose not to comment. This led to several anti-BCCI and anti-Indian cricket tweets from Times Now and from common people, questioning how could they possibly commit the aforementioned political faux-pas.
Little did they know, or care, that the ICC’s rules do not permit teams to wear armbands.
“Players and team officials shall not be permitted to wear, display or otherwise convey messages through arm bands unless approved in advance by both the player or team official’s Board and the ICC Cricket Operations Department. Approval shall not be granted for messages which relate to political, religious or racial activities or causes.” - ICC Clothing and Equipment Regulations, clause G, item 1.
Now there are two parts to this – ICC’s approval and the meaning behind the armband. A team must ask for the ICC Cricket Operations Department’s approval (and that of their own board, naturally) before wearing any sort of armband. They also cannot wear an armband for a ‘political, racial, or religious reasons’.
The Indian team could not wear the armbands because of the political nature of the Kashmir tragedy, and possibly also due to the limited time to get approval, considering the tragedy occurred a few hours before the match started.
In the last few years, the Indian team has worn the black armband as a symbol of mourning the deaths of Mohammed Shami’s father, U19 coach Rajesh Sawant, late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha and Philip Hughes.
What is concerning about this development is not how the news was sensationalised but the way in which large sections of the country turned against the Indian Cricket Team, calling them traitors, match-fixers, terrorists and even asking them to cross the border and move to Pakistan.
The cricket team’s loss to the neighbouring country was met with intense criticism of Indian skipper Virat Kohli in particular, and security had to be beefed up around cricketers’ homes following the loss, a reminder that support for the cricket team in India is sadly conditional.
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