Khawaja's Protest Ends With a Whimper

Peace Dove broken first ball

Usman Khawaja’s big protest in support of Palestine ended last night, not with a bang but with a whimper.

All summer long the Australian batsman had been wanting to parade a symbol on the cricket field to show his solidarity with people in Gaza.

He claimed his protest would be non-political; a statement in support of all humanity.

That would have been easier to believe if his preferred statement in support of all humanity hadn’t been written in the colours of the Palestinian flag!

Usman claimed he felt a responsibility to speak out publicly because he had seen images on Instagram of injured and dying children in Gaza.

But the Pakistan-born opening batsman’s planned protest was going to add exactly zero to the issue.

Everyone has seen the images.

Everyone believes that all lives matter.

Everyone knows there is enormous suffering in Gaza.

Oh, and not incidentally, there is enormous suffering in Israel too. Though, to be fair, that detail hasn’t seemed to feature in Usman’s thinking.

And that was exactly the problem the International Cricket Council eluded to when it banned his planned protest during the Test series because it had ‘political overtones’.

Gee, you think?

Cricket Australia, who quite like political overtones when it suits their progressive left political leanings - assured Usman that once the International Test series was over, he could use a domestic Big Bash T20 game to make his point.

And so last night Usman’s big protest moment arrived.

After a month long campaign for the right to make a statement on the war in Gaza, Khawaja strode to the middle of the Gabba proudly carrying a bat emblazoned with a ‘peace dove’ symbol.

Talk about anti-climax.

Khawaja broke his bat with the first ball he faced!

And he called for it to be replaced after just four balls. The replacement bat didn’t have a peace dove.

He was given out, and trudging back to the pavilion, 4 balls later.

The moral of the story? Well it was fairly obvious I would have thought.

Usman Khawaja just wanted peace. But Perth fast bowler Jason Behrendorff had other ideas. Kind of like Hamas.