Usman Khawaja will wear slogan-written shoes to show solidarity with Palestinians in 1st Test vs Pakistan: Reports

Australian opener Usman Khawaja will wear shoes with slogans on freedom and equality written for the first Test against Pakistan in Perth to show solidarity with Palestinians affected by the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. In doing so, he'll risk sanctions from Cricket Australia (CA) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Khawaja sported the shoes with “Freedom is a human right” and “All lives are equal" in Palestinian colors of red, black, white, and green in a pre-series training session on Tuesday. He told The Sydney Morning Herald that he plans to wear them at the Optus Stadium on Day 1 of the first Test on Thursday.

The Israel-Palestine war is a decades-long conflict over land, rights, and security, causing many deaths, displacements, and humanitarian crises, all of which drastically rose in scale this year. Khawaja, a proud Muslim, has shared a few distressing images and videos coming from the region on social media.

"A great question. Do people not care about innocent humans being killed? Or is it the colour of their skin that makes them less important? Or the religion they practice? These things should be irrelevant if you truly believe that 'we are all equal'. #gaza #humanity #equality #alllivesmatter," Khawaja wrote sharing a post on Instagram about people being displaced from Gaza.

Sharing another post on Twitter, Khawaja wrote:

"Well said brother. Innocents on both sides suffering unfortunately. Particularly those being starved of food and water. There has to be compassion. #humanity"

Messaging on shoes is not new to cricket. For example, Rohit Sharma has often worn shoes calling for environmental protection and related causes.

Usman Khawaja can face sanctions as ICC code bars political messaging

The ICC bars political messaging for cricketers. Its rulebook says that players can't use their clothing to spread personal messages unless approved by the board. For political messaging, the world body has the final say over it even if the home board of the player approves of it.

"Approval shall not be granted for messages which relate to political, religious or racial activities or causes."

The ICC also says that it bars such messaging because cricket should bring communities together and not be a tool to draw attention "to potentially divisive political issues, rhetoric or agendas". It adds that it tackles such issues on a case-by-case basis after considering various points.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali tried to wear a wristband with the phrases “Save Gaza” and “Free Palestine” in 2014 in India but was asked to remove them.