There are two types of professional sports stars in Australia.

First, there are those like new Wimbledon champion Ash Barty, who play their game, go for gold and avoid trendy politics, woke causes and social media hype.

Then there are those who feel the need to “reinforce the importance” of the Black Lives Matter Movement by kneeling and “performing barefoot circles” before international test matches.

Case in point: the Australian cricket team.

Last weekend, Australia’s top cricketers took a knee “in a stand against racism” for the first time at an international game ahead of their series-opening T20 against West Indies on Saturday.

According to Cricket Australia the team stood with the West Indies “in condemning racial injustice and discrimination”.

“As a team we’ll continue to educate ourselves, provide support where possible, and create awareness for those who are victims of racial injustice, and/or discrimination in any form,” Cricket Australia said.

“We kneel alongside our West Indian friends to recognise and show our support of all those who have been victims of racial injustice and/or discrimination, past and present”.

How did this work out for the Australian cricket team?

Well unlike Ash Barty, our cricketers were utterly humiliated, losing to the West Indies by 56 runs.

However, more importantly, Cricket Australia proved how deeply out of touch they are with the average Australian.

Here’s a few questions Advance put together for the Cricket Australia board and skipper Aaron Finch:

• Will Cricket Australia acknowledge there’s no need for Black Lives Matter in Australia as the per capita rate of Indigenous deaths in custody is lower than their non-Indigenous counterparts?
• Does Cricket Australia have remorse for the thousands of innocent people of all races who died and/or had their properties looted in so-called “solidarity” with oppressed African Americans during the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020?
• Is Cricket Australia a supporter of BLM’s official policy of “defunding the police” because they “don’t keep us safe” and come “at the expense of housing, health, and education investments” as BLM says?
• Can Cricket Australia condemn self-described “trained Marxist” and BLM founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors for going on a real estate buying binge through some of the ritziest areas of the United States while violent BLM riots raged in some of the most impoverished parts?
• Does Cricket Australia think families should exist? Afterall, two of three Black Lives Matter founders identify as “queer” and BLM’s website disparagingly described families as playing into the “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure”.
• Is Cricket Australia in any way concerned that its promotion of Black Lives Matter is dividing people against each other based on racial lines – especially considering 55 per cent of UK adults believe the BLM protests that took place in 2020 increased racial tensions?
• Can Cricket Australia provide Advance with any other important social causes they’re currently championing whether it’s youth homelessness, veteran suicide, mortgage stress, family breakdowns, mental health issues, underemployment, drug addiction or political disillusionment, just to name a few?
• Or is the mob running Cricket Australia only interested in Black Lives Matter and losing what should be walk-in-the-park T20 matches to the West Indies?

As sad as it is, Advance and our 100,000+ supporters suspect the latter.