England Men's and Women's teams to wear anti-discrimination T-shirts in their warm-ups throughout this summer; Joe Root: "We have spent a lot of time talking about this sort of thing, but this year is all about action."
Wednesday 2 June 2021 16:59, UK
The England and New Zealand players took part in a 'Moment of Unity' before the start of the first Test at Lord's to show their collective determination to fight any form of discrimination in cricket.
The players and match officials stood in silence on the outfield, facing the pavilion, with the England side in T-shirts which incorporated anti-discrimination messages on their front and back.
The wearing of the T-shirts has been driven by the England men's squad and both the men and women will wear them in warm-ups throughout the summer.
The front of the T-shirts carries the message: 'Cricket is a game for everyone'.
There are seven different designs of the shirts, each one featuring a different message on the back.
The words on the back begin 'We stand together against', before one of 'racism', 'religious intolerance', 'sexism', 'transphoboia', 'homophobia', 'ableism' or 'ageism'.
England Test captain Joe Root said before the match: "We will be taking a moment of unity at the start of the game.
"New Zealand will also be doing that. They are happy to work alongside us and support us in that.
"We know the start of last summer unearthed some ugly truths in society and in our sport. We have spent a lot of time talking about how we can better our game and how we can educate ourselves more.
"Throughout this summer, we will be looking at working with hopefully three projects where we can take the game to more diverse areas around the country where we can continue to look to grow the game and offer our help and support in doing that.
"We have spent a lot of time talking about this sort of thing, but this year is all about action. It's about actually doing something about it.
"Hopefully this year we can really start to make a difference and keep that conversation current. We can make our game more diverse and make sure it is the game for everyone."
