After few veteran West Indies cricketers revealed the prevalence of racism in cricket, James Anderson has said that the England team were considering if they would join the Windies players if they make any anti-racism gestures during the upcoming Test series in July.

“It’s been a very thought-provoking few weeks for everyone. It’s made me do a lot of thinking. We will have conversations about what we can do as players to make a stand,” said Anderson as quoted by BBC Sports.

England’s leading Test wicket-taker further said that things can’t go the way they have been and that the players should take a stand to bring and end to the plight of racism. He said, “It can’t keep going the way it is. That’s what I’ve been thinking about and is there more that I can do to help as a player.”

Anderson was also seen speaking about Jofra Archer who had alleged that he was racially abused by a spectator during a match in New Zealand.

“I wasn’t there in New Zealand when Jofra was racially abused. It made me think and it made me think ‘have I turned a blind eye to things?’ I’d try to support my teammates if they did suffer any sort of abuse but have I been active in supporting them on things like that?”

“It also made me think, have I just turned a blind eye to things? I’ll try and support my team-mates if they do suffer any abuse but have I been active in supporting them?” the 37-year-old added.

Earlier, West Indies captain Jason Holder had said that it “would be foolish” to deny that racism does not exist in cricket and informed that he would speak with his players to decide if they would make any anti-racism demonstration during the Test series against England.

Meanwhile, the talks about racism in cricket were initiated by former West Indies captain Darren Sammy after he revealed that he was subjected to name-calling for his skin colour while playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.

Sammy got the support of Windies cricketers Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo who said that they too were subjected to racism during their international careers.

These reactions have come in the wake of massive anti-racism protests in several parts of the world after the killing of a black civilian George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, United States of America, last month.

Floyd, aged 46, was choked to death by officer Derek Chauvin. He held Floyd down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” and “please, I can’t breathe”.