England’s cricketers took the knee for 30 seconds before the start of the first Test at the Ageas Bowl to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Telegraph Sport revealed on Tuesday that players from England and West Indies would take a knee for an extended period of 30 seconds before play and they carried out their pledge moments before Kemar Roach bowled the first ball of the game in the first ever Test match to be played behind closed doors.
West Indies players wore black gloves on their left hands as they took the knee in their fielding positions. England’s opening batsmen, Dom Sibley and Rory Burns, knelt down on one knee at the crease. Umpires Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough, the first two Englishmen to stand in a home Test for more than 20 years, also took a knee.
The England players not on the field, reserves from both teams and coaches made the gesture beyond the boundary, just in front of the pavilion.
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