Adamant sport and politics are intertwined, Holding said the Australian team should ignore the naysayers.

“To those who talk about not mixing sport and politics, why did they not go and play in South Africa during apartheid?” Holding said. “They use that as a matter of convenience: don’t mix sport and politics.

“Then why did South Africa get banned from international sport during apartheid? They need to shut up.

“Whatever you do you will never please everybody but if you do the right thing, nobody should be afraid of doing the right thing, and nobody should be afraid of the truth, you will always find people against you, but you don’t worry about that. When you do the wrong thing you worry about people that are against you.

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“What we need to do is ensure those detractors are pushed into the margins so whatever they say and do becomes more and more insignificant, and [encourage] people who continue to do the right thing to educate more and more people so more and more people will see and do the right things.

“Once you do the right thing you can go to bed feeling comfortable and with nothing on your conscience.”

A fan of Cummins the fast bowler, Holding has become a great admirer of Cummins the man, though they have never met. He urged Cummins to continue speaking up on environmental issues despite backlash from critics.

“I still don’t know him as a human being, I’ve never had a conversation with him, but now that I’ve seen his actions, and I’ve seen what he’s doing and saying I’m even more impressed as a human being,” Holding said.

“I hope others will learn from him. I am very glad to see people taking a stand: right is right. When you have an opportunity to showcase wrongdoings you must do it. Not everyone has a voice that people will listen to, so when you have a voice that makes an impact use that voice. The world is sick and it needs healing.”