The debate about ‘what’ and ‘how much’ politics should be allowed in sports is not new. The 1936 Berlin Olympics became a stage for furthering Nazism’s racial supremacy ideology. In the 1968 Mexico Olympics, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists on the podium to show their support of ‘Black power’.
Earlier, in the 1964 edition in Tokyo, apartheid-era South Africa was excluded from the Games. But MCC seemed to kowtow to the regime in 1968 when it ‘ignored’ an in-form Basil D’Oliveira, a South African-born mixed-race (Indian and Portuguese) cricketer for England’s tour of South Africa. (Even after D’Oliveira was called up later to play, the tour was cancelled.) The Soviet Bloc’s as well as the US’ and Western allies’ tit-for-tat boycotting of each other’s Olympics has become part of Cold War lore, as has India-Pakistan tu-tu, mein-mein snubs.
Yet, there seems to be a marked difference between collective and individual show of politics in sports, the latter somehow found to be more disruptive by most people. More recently, the acceptability of a collective show has been evident in the symbolic act of ‘taking a knee’ started by American football player Colin Kaepernick to protest against police brutality and systemic racism.
After the racist murder of George Floyd by White police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020, the gesture became a standard show of protest. The Indian cricket team also took a knee in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement before the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan in 2021.
So, would it have made a difference if Khawaja continued to pursue his empathy for Palestinians suffering in Gaza via other modes like social media messages instead of messages on his shoes while playing? Probably, yes.The International Tennis Federation (ITF) rulebook has ‘no provision that prohibits political statements’. This was made clear by the governing body after Novak Djokovic’s ‘Kosovo message’ earlier this year – the Serbian tennis player, one of the greatest of the game, had written ‘Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence’ in Serbian on a TV camera during the French Open. Despite criticism, Djokovic later said that the comment was ‘something that I stand for’.Rules in other sports – cricket (ICC), football (Fifa), etc – make no mention of social statements made in sporting events. And, therein lies the ambiguity. The big question is how and who would differentiate between ‘social’ and ‘political’ activism? Especially when many professional athletes across the world are not shy to take a stand as political or social activists, much to the chagrin of many, and inspiring others.
After Women’s World Cup-winning American footballer Megan Rapinoe’s continued kneeling during the playing of the American national anthem ‘to draw attention to white supremacy and police brutality’, the US Soccer Federation were forced to issue a statement in 2016: ‘…we have an expectation that our players and coaches will stand and honour our flag while the national anthem is played’.
Like it or not, sports and political opinions seem to be mutually inclusive, more so these days, even as it remains the mix seems unsporting or ‘woke’ to many. So, perhaps it is high time that governing bodies as well as spectators get used to this admixture, where in the real world sportspersons aren’t without their social and political opinions, even as we value them for their sporting excellence.
