England, West Indies Women To Support 'BLM' Movement In The Upcoming T20 Series

Heather Knight and Stefanie Taylor (Heather Knight and Stefanie Taylor)

The England and West Indies women cricketers will support the 'Black Lives Matter' movement during the upcoming five-match T20I series scheduled to be played from September 21-30 at the Incora County Ground, Derby.

England captain Heather Knight has been in contact with her West Indies counterpart, Stafanie Taylor, and the pair plan to further discuss how best to mark the movement during the series, reports ESPNcricinfo.

"We've had a chat as players and we definitely want to do something to honour the movement and give our support to it and keep the conversation happening," Knight said.

"We haven't had a chance to catch up yet, it's quite hard because we're in two separate bubbles in one big bubble so I'll speak to Stafanie over the next few days to work out exactly what that looks like for both teams. But us as players, we want to do something and we're working to support it," she added.

The teams also will also wear the Black Lives Matter logo on their shirts, just as the England and West Indies men's teams did during their Test series in July. The men's team and their support staff also took a knee before play throughout that series, as did England and Ireland during their three ODIs.

However, England, Pakistan and Australia opted not to perform the gesture in their subsequent series, thus drawing severe criticism from West Indies great Michael Holding.

The 'BLM' movement has been raging on since the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police personnel in May. Athletes around the world have also taken part in the movement by taking a knee before start of their respective matches.