'You just got to laugh': Usman Khawaja calls out ICC in brutal ‘double standards’ dig in social media post

A day after the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected Australia opener Usman Khawaja's latest application to raise awareness over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where he requested to display a picture of a dove and an olive branch on his bat and shoes during the Boxing Day Test match against Pakistan on Sunday, the batter took to social media to call out cricket's apex body and outline their "double standards" over the issue.

Khawaja was earlier barred from wearing shoes that had the messages “all lives are equal” and “freedom is a human right” in the first Test match against Pakistan last week and was then charged by ICC for wearing a black armband during the Perth clash. He had, however, later clarified that it was due to a "personal bereavement" and that he would challenge the decision before revealing that he wouldn't do the same in the MCG Test match.

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The Aussie batter felt that instead of written messages, he would be allowed to display a picture, of a black dove with an olive branch - a symbol of peace - in the next Test match. He, in fact, had the picture on display on both his bat and shoes during the training nets on Sunday in Melbourne, but the request to carry out the same in an international game was denied.

Disappointed at ICC's stance, he took to Instagram on Monday to highlight the "double standards" and "inconsistency" in following their regulations. He uploaded a video with Kanye West’s ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ in the background and captioned it: “Merry Christmas everybody. Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Cya at Boxing Day! #inconsistent #doublestandards.”

The video had images of his teammate Marnus Labuschagne with an eagle and bible verse on his bat and South Africa all-rounder Keshav Maharaj with the 'Om' symbol (in generic Devanagari symbol) on his bat.

Earlier in the day, Australia captain Pat Cummins, in the pre-game presser at the MCG, was asked about his opinion on the Khawaja saga and he backed his teammate saying that his messages weren't "very offensive”.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of the application, but I think it is pretty vanilla, a dove,” Cummins said. “We really support Uzzy, I think he’s standing up for what he believes and I think he’s doing it really respectfully. All lives are equal and I don’t think that’s very offensive, and I’d say the same about the dove. That’s Uzzy. He can hold his head high the way he’s gone about it, but there’s rules in place, so I believe the ICC have said they’re not going to approve that. They make up the rules and you’ve got to accept it.”