South Africa Won’t Take Knee in Series Against England: Mark Boucher

England is on a tour of South Africa to play three T20Is followed by as many ODIs, starting from November 27 and concluding on December 9. England’s limited-overs squad already reached South Africa and are currently serving 10-day quarantine.

Back in July, South Africa players took the knee and also wore black armbands during the 3TC in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. However, as England is touring South Africa for a limited-overs series, head coach Mark Boucher has revealed that the players won’t be taking the knee and will only wear black armbands.

“I have spoken to the guy (Lungi Ngidi) who was driving the whole movement within our set-up, he is pretty happy that we have done what we needed to do, in particular at that (3TC) game,” Mark Boucher was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“It’s not something that we have to continue to show. It’s something that you have to live… If guys who brought it up are happy with it, that’s great, but if they feel we have to do more, that will be a chat and that they are open to express their opinions.”

However, he received flak for his comments with former international cricketers Pat Symcox and Boeta Dippenaar saying that Ngidi should also speak up against attacks on white farmers in South Africa.

“Our new value system is about respect, empathy and belonging and all of those lead to an environment where guys feel free to talk about these hard issues. They’ve got the support and respect and empathy from every other player.”

He said that the team may wear black armbands to support the issues in line with the president’s call.

“There are a couple of other issues that our president has raised going forward with regards to gender-based violence and the victims of Covid19.

“We are going to be addressing this with the team so if there is a black armband to wear, we will probably be wearing it because of the president’s call.”