Mumbai Indians all-rounder Hardik Pandya has become the first player to take a knee in support of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
Pandya's gesture came during the IPL match against Rajasthan Royals in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
After reaching his half century in the 19th over, he went down on a knee with his right arm raised to show solidarity with the movement against racism. He went on to smash 60 run from just 21 balls, hitting seven sixes and two fours.
West Indies all-rounder and Mumbai's stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard responded by raising his right fist.
After the match Pandya even tweeted a picture of himself with the caption "#BlackLivesMatter".
Last week, West Indies Test skipper Jason Holder, who plays for the Sunrisers Hyderbad, had expressed his disappointment over none of the IPL teams taking a knee in solidarity with the movement, which, he felt, went unnoticed in the league.
"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 had said.
The "taking a knee" gesture started in the West Indies' Test series in England this summer in protest against racism after African-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.
