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West Indies fast bowling legend Michael Holding jolted Good Morning Britain viewers this morning (June 24) when he used a profanity during an interview about his newly released book Why We Kneel, How We Rise.

Following last year’s killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis in the United States by policeman Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes and prompted the rise of the global Black Lives Matter Movement, Holding has been an advocate for the movement.

Since then, he has continuously supported the action of sportsmen and women who kneeled in support of calls for equality for people of colour.

During a rain delay during a Test he was working on in July 2020, Holding famously broke down on air while talking about his own experiences with racism. He subsequently wrote his book that also features similar experiences as told by world-famous athletes like Usain Bolt, Thierry Henry, Michael Johnson, Makhaya Ntini and Naomi Osaka.

Speaking about the book with host Sam Shepherd this morning, Holding’s passion flowed unabated.

 “As a young man growing up at school, I was never taught anything good about what black people or people of colour. I have since discovered all the great things they have done that have been airbrushed out of history because they don’t suit the narrative of white superiority of what people want to portray.

“Until we teach all of history so that everyone – black and white – can understand the true history of mankind, we will continue to have struggles. We have people growing up, subconsciously or not, thinking that they are superior to other races. That is a load of bollocks as you would say.”

Shepherd immediately apologised for the use of the profanity, prompting Holding to do the same.

Holding, who was doing commentary on a Test match when he did that emotional interview with Mark Austin on Sky News last year, said he no longer wanted to speak about the subject on television.

“When I did that interview with Mark Austin, I went straight back to the commentary box because I was at cricket; I went back to the commentary box and spoke to my boss, Brian Henderson, my immediate boss at Sky and I said, ‘Hendo, that’s it. I am speaking to no one else on this matter because people tend to think that it’s like you’re discussion a cricket game or a football game,” he said.

“They don’t understand the emotions that flow through you. You don’t just shed tears because you’re happy. Those emotions, you don’t want to face them every day and that that point I said, ‘that’s it. I will speak to no one ever’.

“I had people from the USA, NBC calling me wanting to speak to me, I said ‘absolutely no chance’ this is not a football match, you’re getting involved with my life and my emotions, no way.”

The book, he said, came about because of the overwhelming response to his public utterances from people who were touched by his raw emotion.

“With so much messaging and people coming from all parts of the world saying this is something that has to be told, this is something that has to go further, that’s how I got involved  with the book. But its not an easy task, even writing the book wasn’t easy,” he said revealing that there are some parts of the book that he cannot read ever again.

“Some of those chapters I have read them more than once because some chapters, I don’t want to read again.

“I sent a chapter to my sister when I was doing the book and one of the times I sent a chapter to her and she said, ‘Mikey, I am not reading this. I cannot read this. This is painful.”