Ashley Giles support Joe Root

The high-profile Ashes series, which will begin in December, will pit England against Australia in a battle of wills. During the build-up to the much anticipated series, it has been stated that Joe Root and his team may decide to call a halt to any of the Test matches if any of the visiting team’s players is exposed to racist abuse or any other type of abuse by the Australian fans in any cricket match.

It should be remembered that England’s managing director, Ashley Giles, has given Joe Root all authority to make this critical choice in the event that the raucous Australian audience breaches any boundary. From Giles’ perspective, it is apparent that racism of any kind will not be tolerated in the series. This is something that has been highlighted by google cricket.

What did Ashley Giles say as per the recent interview from the Daily Mail?

“We are aware that the audiences may be boisterous there. As a player, I have had first-hand experience with this. However, it is critical to state from the outset that there is no place for racism in our game.”

“I have every confidence in Joe Root to do what is right. If he chooses to bring the team to the centre of the field and halt the game while any event is examined, then he has complete authority to do so. I do not believe any of our players should be subjected to abuse in general, but I believe they should be subjected to bigotry and racism in particular.”

If we do not offer folks an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves, I believe we have a problem on our hands: Ashley Giles

Giles went on to say that since Azeem Rafiq’s racism issue came to light, there has been a lot of discussion about it, and English players in the Ashes team have also expressed their thoughts on the subject.

Adding his thoughts, he noted that racism and prejudice should be obviously unacceptable, but that not giving the guilty person a second opportunity to reform himself is not the proper approach. Rafiq has also accused former England captain Michael Vaughan of making racist comments towards Asian players at a press conference.

In the event that zero tolerance indicates that racism and prejudice will not be tolerated, then that is totally correct. In contrast, if zero tolerance implies that we shut individuals off from society, that we don’t give them second chances, that we don’t offer them the opportunity to rehabilitate, then I believe we have a problem,” he said.

When asked about the accusation again by the BBC’s Dan Walker on Saturday, Vaughan categorically denied it, but he did express regret to Rafiq for “the pain” he had during his time at Yorkshire.

He was also forced to apologise for a series of historic xenophobic tweets during that BBC interview, including one posted in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 in which he suggested that England all-rounder Moeen Ali should ask fellow Muslims he did not know if they were terrorists. He has since been dropped from the BBC’s coverage of the upcoming Ashes series in Australia.

What next with regards to the upcoming Ashes, as both teams are ready for an intense series?

The two teams did well in the recently concluded T20 World Cup and will now be focused on performing well in the upcoming series. With that being said, the T20 champions of the world will have a slight advantage over their rivals. They were not the favourites to win the competition in the UAE but stepped up at the right time.

That is something that Australia always tends to do when they really need to put their foot down. This will have shown the world what the Aussies are capable of and the English side will want to get back to winning ways and clinch this crucial series.

Further, Pat Cummins is the new Test skipper of the team. He will want to impress and leave his mark on this series. The all-rounder will want to start off positively in his new role as the skipper and will want to make a major impact in the world of cricket, in his inaugural series.