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'Sometimes it seems it has gone unnoticed, which is a sad thing.'
West Indies captain Jason Holder expressed his disappointment that none of the eight IPL teams are 'taking a knee' in solidarity with the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, which has been completely ignored in world's most glamorous cricket league.
Holder, who is part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team, made the statement while receiving the prestigious Peter Smith Award on behalf of the West Indies cricket team in a virtual programme organised by the Cricket Writers' Club.
The Peter Smith Award is an annual honour which recognises outstanding contribution to the presentation of cricket to the public.
"To be honest, I haven't had one conversation up here around it (BLM). Sometimes it seems it has gone unnoticed, which is a sad thing. I guess it's for us to re-highlight the importance of it, for people to understand what is happening in the world," Holder said in his address posted on Cricket West Indies website.
"COVID-19 has obviously caused a lot of attention around it, there's suddenly a lot of attention on the elections in America as well, too. But for us, particularly as black people in the Caribbean, a black-dominant society, it's for us to continue the education.
"Cricket West Indies has done an excellent job in continuing awareness of it. The women had a series in England where they wore the Black Lives Matter logo and continued to push the movement as well," he added.
The 'taking a knee' gesture started in the West Indies' Test series in England this summer in protest against racism after Black American George Floyd was killed by an on-duty white police officer in Minneapolis.
But the gesture was later discontinued for the subsequent tours of Pakistan and Australia.
"I personally was a bit disappointed to see how the Pakistan and Australia tours went on after us and they are not showing their solidarity. But it's a long debate, a long hard challenge, a long road. We as people need to continue to come together, put our minds together and genuinely find ways to fix the inequalities in the world," Holder said.
"It's not an overnight fix. This is something that is going to be ongoing for maybe a number of years. But I think the most important thing is that we need to come together, we need to see each other as all equal human beings and treat each other that way, and be your brother's keeper in this world."