Michael Holding is one of my cricketing heroes, part of the great West Indies teams of the 1980’s & ‘90’s who first got me interested in cricket. He was a superb fast-bowler who’s bowling could make grown men tremble, and is a very knowledgeable cricket commentator, so when I saw the short video piece he and fellow cricketer/commentator Ebony Rainford-Brent made in 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, with tears in their eyes and voices cracking, I was shocked. Yes, I knew about racism and have read a lot of Black history and politics, but somehow these two people expressing their pain and shock at encountering such things made an impression.
This book is partly Mikey’s personal story of how he grew from shrugging it off – “These people are sick. I’ll soon be on a plane out of here” – to gradually learning more about Black history and pride, institutional racism and its wide impact, and then with the BLM movement being motivated to speak out. It also carries discussions with other sports stars about their struggles, achievements and activism, including Usain Bolt, another Jamaican; Naomi Osaka, tennis player who walked into the US Open wearing covid masks bearing the names of African-Americans killed by police; and many others who contacted him in response to his video comments.
Mikey is a great believer in education, and hopes that if the truth of Black history is taught to everybody then trust and respect will flower where now there is ignorance and hatred. I’m not so sanguine, but hopefully this book will make a start in that discourse. ( )