‘Black people have an extra hurdle to jump’: ex-cricketer Michael Holding

The former West Indies fast bowler has written a book about his experiences of encountering racial prejudice, with contributions from famous names such as Usain Bolt and Naomi Osaka

In his playing days in the 1970s and 1980s, the West Indian cricketer Michael Holding didn’t speak out against racism, although he saw it all around him. “I chose not to confront it because I was being selfish,” he says. “You saw what happened to athletes when they tried to speak up. Their careers came to an end.”

He remembers John Carlos and Tommie Smith, the two African-American athletes who famously raised black-gloved fists at the 1968 Mexico Olympics during the medal ceremony for the 200m. “There wasn’t enough pressure on people to heed a black man calling out back then,” he says.

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