Islamabad
\nAustralia captain Pat Cummins threw his support behind star opener Usman Khawaja Monday, saying his bid to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was \u201cnot offensive\u201d.
\nKhawaja has been denied permission by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to have a sticker showing a black dove holding an olive branch on his bat and shoes during the second Test against Pakistan.
\nThe logo, which he displayed during training on Sunday, also had the words 01:UDHR \u2014 a reference to Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights \u2014 written on it.
\nThe 36-year-old, a Muslim, was stopped from wearing shoes emblazoned with the hand-written slogans \u201cFreedom is a human right\u201d and \u201cAll lives are equal\u201d during the first Test in Perth.
\nThe ICC said they flouted its rules on messages that relate to politics, religion or race.
\n\u201cWe really support Uzzy. He\u2019s standing up for what he believes and I think he\u2019s done it really respectfully,\u201d Cummins told reporters on the eve of the Test in Melbourne.
\n\u201cAs I said last week, \u2018All lives are equal\u2019, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s very offensive and I\u2019d say the same about the dove.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s Uzzy. I think he can really hold his head high with the way he\u2019s gone about it.
\n\u201cBut obviously there\u2019s rules in place and I believe the ICC have said they\u2019re not going to approve that. They make up the rules and you\u2019ve got to accept it.\u201d
\nKhawaja wore a black armband during the Perth Test and was reprimanded by the ICC, but insisted it was for a \u201cpersonal bereavement\u201d and not politically-motivated.
\nLast week, he spoke about how the Israel-Hamas conflict had affected him.
\n\u201cWhen I\u2019m looking at my Instagram and seeing innocent kids, videos of them dying, passing away, that\u2019s what hit me the hardest,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t have any agendas other than trying to shine a light on what I feel really passionately, really strongly about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Australia captain Pat Cummins threw his support behind star opener Usman Khawaja Monday, saying his bid to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was \u201cnot offensive\u201d. Khawaja has been denied permission by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to have a sticker showing a black dove holding an olive branch on his bat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-376816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n