Fast bowling great Michael Holding said education was key to stamping out racism as England and the West Indies took a knee in support of t...
Fast bowling great Michael Holding said education was key to stamping out racism as England and the West Indies took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign before the first Test on Wednesday.
Holding, who played in the great West Indian sides of the 1970s and 1980s, recalled ugly incidents he experienced as a young Test cricketer on his visits of Australia and England.
“I went on my very first tour of Australia in 1975-’76,” Holding told Sky Sports.
“I never experienced any racism on the cricket field, but you are fielding down by the boundary and you hear some comments being passed. At that stage I just thought ‘these people are sick’.”
Watch: Ex-cricketers Michael Holding, Ebony Rainford-Brent and Nasser Hussain on Black Lives Matter
Before the 1976 series, then England captain Tony Grieg, a white South African by birth, infamously said he intended to make the West Indies “grovel”, a reference to their supposed tendency to falter under pressure.
A furious West Indies, with Holding leading the way, won the five-match series 3-0.
“I came to England in ‘76 and it started again, but myself – and most of the team – just brushed it off,” said Holding. “I told myself that I was only here for the summer...
