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Usman Khawaja believes he's criticised for being Pakistani

Things have changed now but it's no secret Pakistani cricketers were often lazy esp in the field.

It's sad to say but there are some anglo/saxon/white people who are subconsciously racist, which often leads to strange comments coming out of their lips.
 
Warne's comment of calling Usman "lazy" only reaffirms my belief that most Aussies are institutionally racists. Could be that I am also generalising like Warne as well but their players are often involved in arguments with the opposition. Aussies have a very racist reputation from Lehmann abusing Murali to there people beating up Indian students some years back. I do regard Australian's as being one off the most racist people on the planet no doubt about it. There are racial undertones in a lot things their commentators say. Under the mask Warne looks like a proper racist to me.
 
This guy sounds really confused. On the one hand he compares himself with Mark Waugh who was also called lazy and then a few seconds later says he's called lazy because he's Pakistani.
 
PakLFC said:
Warne's comment of calling Usman "lazy" only reaffirms my belief that most Aussies are institutionally racists. Could be that I am also generalising like Warne as well but their players are often involved in arguments with the opposition. Aussies have a very racist reputation from Lehmann abusing Murali to there people beating up Indian students some years back. I do regard Australian's as being one off the most racist people on the planet no doubt about it. There are racial undertones in a lot things their commentators say. Under the mask Warne looks like a proper racist to me.
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Why do Aussie women marry desi boys then?
 
What is wrong in saying he is the first muslim to score a hundred for australia? it is a compliment just like general ayub sb praised milkha singh by calling him the flying sikh.
 
Khawaja does have the lazy David Gower-esque elegance to his play. Looks great when it comes off, but you look like a lazy knob if it doesn't. Can see where that part comes from.
 
Madplayer said:
Why do Aussie women marry desi boys then?
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You get a few mixed race marriages everywhere. Aussies have a reputation of being proper racists, google it. One Shaniera Akram can not undo that.
 
PakLFC said:
You get a few mixed race marriages everywhere. Aussies have a reputation of being proper racists, google it. One Shaniera Akram can not undo that.
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100% true.

In Australia, Aborigines were considered *Animals* by law! Law changed in the 80s I think!
 
Cryin Out Loud said:
IIRC, this guy has brought out the racism angle a few times. IMO, he should pay more attention to his performances.
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This.

Khwaja would not have been in the national playing eleven if the Aussies were really as racist as he claims they are.
 
Play the race card when nothing else works..
 
If he had paid for more attention to his game against spin instead of playing victim card then he would’ve been much better batsman now.

As of now, he is second coming of Chris Martin in Asia.
 
Well he says he suffered vile racist abuse growing up in the cricket system when he was young and I believe him on that.

However now he’s in the National team his performances on the field will keep him In the team.

He had some magic form 2 years ago both domestic and international that made him a run machine. Let the bat do the talking then the haters will have nothing to say.
 
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Pakistanian said:
There are so many FOBs on here that have no unserstandinf of how racism works and it's ironic that all happen to be Indian.
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Right, these same Indians and their media were crying foul about racism in Australia when their students were being attacked few years ago.
 
90MPH said:
Right, these same Indians and their media were crying foul about racism in Australia when their students were being attacked few years ago.
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Good observation,that's what Indians were complaining about ,being stereotyped as lazy.
 
Pakistanian said:
There are so many FOBs on here that have no unserstandinf of how racism works and it's ironic that all happen to be Indian.
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Yer what's ironic is you calling someone FOB and asking them to understand how racism works. :srini
 
This is a pretty cheap stunt by Usman where he plays the race card and accuse the pundits of being prejudiced. If he wasn't a sloppy fielder and a trainwreck of a batsman , he wouldn't be getting all this criticism.
I assume he'll have lost the sympathies of the aussie public , the media and even his team now after this interview.
 
90MPH said:
Right, these same Indians and their media were crying foul about racism in Australia when their students were being attacked few years ago.
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There is a big difference between a few poor Indians students crying racism, and an Australian celebrity of immigrant background like Khwaja doing so.

Khwaja may be an immigrant but is a product of the Australian society which, notwithstanding its racist undertones, gives all opportunities and allows everyone irrespective of colour and background to thrive.

Were it not to be so, Khwaja's parents may not have immigrated to Australia in the first place. It is also the reason why Indians, Pakistanis and other nationalities still migrate there in droves every year.

I would say that Khwaja deserves full credit for working hard and reaching to where he is. But playing the racist card to hide his own faults and as a consequence, discrediting the very environment that gave him so much and made him what he is reeks of selfishness, and nothing more.

Khwaja should grow up and take a leaf out of the book of men like Moeen Ali and Nasser Hussain. Inspite of having faced racism and a difficult upbringing due to their immigrant background, these two are among the most dignified and genteel people in the game. You would never see people like them blaming racism in England for their failures.

Crying out racism when the chips are down will only reduce Khwaja to the level of a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant lacking talent and social skills in a new home. He needs to do better than that, given his level of achievement, and be an inspiration to the loads immigrants from Asia who reach Australia with hope in their hearts every year.

So stop complaining and start performing, Khwaja. Millions of others will give their right hand and a kidney to be in your place.
 
If you feel racism there is nothing wrong in speaking up against it but I think this guy is just having a whinge. Aussies called him lazy because he was a Pakistani ??? Booo Hoooooo cry me a river, get out there and play, he was supposed to be the next Ricky Ponting but have been an avg batsmen at best slightly above avg....... I remember being at the MCG and white aussie fans were calling out to Symonds: 'run monkey boy run' years before the Indian monkey gate that's racism not this panziee cry baby crap, which this kid is spilling....
 
JaDed said:
Yer what's ironic is you calling someone FOB and asking them to understand how racism works. :srini
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There's nothing wrong with what he said, FOBs have a different viewpoint about racism as they come with the view of a grateful immigrant, as compared to ABCD/BBCDs who think more like the natives of the land, hence people often referring to me as a native Brit.
 
how different his life is now - what would it have been had he been in Pak?
 
CanadianG00se said:
If he had paid for more attention to his game against spin instead of playing victim card then he would’ve been much better batsman now.

As of now, he is second coming of Chris Martin in Asia.
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Looks like he has paid attention to his game against spin now. :inti
 
Victim mentality, so he really is Pakistani then :afridi

j/k j/k Pakistan Zindabad.
 
Usman Khawaja tells of facing racist abuse as youngster in Australia

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5516237/Usman-Khawaja-tells-racist-abuse-youngster.html

Australia's first Muslim cricketer Usman Khawaja has told of the horrific racial abuse he suffered as a youngster with other players' parents calling him a '****' and opponents branding him a 'f***ing curry-muncher'.

Pakistan-born Khawaja emigrated with his parents and two older brothers in 1991 when he was five before making his way through New South Wales' amateur cricket grades to become the first Muslim to represent Australia in 2011.

The 31-year-old batsman, who helped Australia beat England in The Ashes by scoring 171 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, said the vile abuse he endured was 'deeply hurtful' but made him stronger and hungrier for success.

Speaking about the racism he suffered during his youth career, Khawaja said: 'Some of the stuff could be pretty vulgar.'

'One of the parents in earshot of me just nailed me - called me a black, **** c***. It could be very hurtful.'

Khawaja said some family friends refused to believe that he would ever make the national team because of his skin colour.

'I'd go to Pakistani family dinners and stuff, and they'd tell me I'd never make Australia,' Khawaja told 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon on Sunday night.

'They'd say you're not the right skin colour. There was no one that looked like me on the Australian cricket team.'

He said this only spurred him on and made him more determined to make the team.

'What it did was make me hungry to be better,' Khawaja said.

'I was going to have to just score more and more runs and not let anyone have any excuse to not pick me.'

Khawaja also revealed how his faith is the most important thing in his life. Asked if he would chose cricket or religion, he said: 'I love my cricket, but faith any day of the week.'

He added: 'Everything I do, it's always in the back of my mind. I'm always thinking, "Is this the right thing to do? Is this how I should be doing things?"'.

Ahead of The Ashes, Khawaja blogged about how endemic racism delayed the production of ethnic players in Australian cricket and led youngsters like him to resent the national team.

'Everything that was going on in our childhood and around us built up this resentment of the Australian cricket team,' Khawaja wrote in playersvoice.com.au.

'Getting sledged by opposition players and their parents was the norm,' he continued.

'Some of them said it just quietly enough for only me to hear. It still hurt, but I would never show it. Most of the time it was when I scored runs.

'It is for this reason why so many of my friends, most of whom were born outside Australia, didn't support Australia in sporting contests. I didn't either.

'Especially in cricket. It was either West Indies, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka. Anyone else.'

He continued: 'My point is this: it's no surprise it has taken Australia cricket so long for coloured players to come through the system. There is no doubt racism and politics played a large role in selections in the past.

' "I could have played for Australia, but I didn't get selected because I was black/Indian/Pakistani, so I stopped playing." I've heard that story all my life, whether it was from a family friend or just a random bloke.

'When I was younger I used to think, "Sure, sure, that's what everyone says." But after hearing this literally a hundred times over many, many years, I started to think, "Wait a minute. Maybe there is more to this. Where there is smoke, there is fire".'

Reflecting on the 'sadness, hate and anger' behind these stories, he also recalled some of the abuse aimed at him.

'F***ing curry muncher' was one of the more popular ones that particularly hurt. I'm not sure why, looking back. I still don't know how to actually munch curry.

'Being racially vilified actually made me stronger in many respects. I even had a couple of kids try to fight me one day heading home from school - for no reason either.

'They were in my class one second and the bell rang – the next minute I'm just about to leave the gates of my school and they are having a go at me.

'I somehow managed to put up enough of a fight to fend them off but I still don't know why they did what they did.'

On 60 minutes, Khawaja discussed how his 22-year-old fiancee Rachel McLellan, from Brisbane, agreed to convert to Islam so they could marry in April.

'Ussie was the first Muslim I'd ever met,' Rachel told reporter Allison Langdon.

'I was very ignorant around Ussie, I will admit to that. I only listened to what I had heard on the news. All I read was well, terrorists and awful things.'

Despite trying to challenge the stereotypes of the religion, Khawaja said the pair have faced outrage since going public with their relationship.

'A lot of times a lot of the hate I get is from other Muslims on social media,' he said.

'We will put up a photo of us two, and it will be like, "Oh she's not Muslim. That's haram, you can't marry her".'

Khawaja proposed to his girlfriend - who was born into a devout Catholic family - during a romantic New York holiday in July 2016.

As their relationship blossomed, the batsman said he never put any pressure on Rachel to switch religion for him - and insisted the decision was entirely hers to make.

'I never was going to put a gun to Rachel's head and say you have to convert,' he said.

'I told her I would prefer her to convert but she has to do it on her own. Unless it comes from you, comes from the heart, then there is no point doing it.'

Walking away from her Catholic roots, Rachel made the controversial decision on her own to convert to Islam last year.

'I felt no pressure from him, not any pressure from his family. I just knew it was so important to him,' she said.
 
Nothing about Australia should surprise anymore.
 
I always live by the rule: if a minority person talks about having faced injustice, he/she is right.

Also, one can't speak up for minority rights in one country and excuse it in another - be it Pakistan, Australia or US.

People who point to Western cultures to be more accommodative than many others, forget that there are many unsaid rules and injustices that are embedded in those cultures too.

Khawaja broke through the barriers because he was good enough and the winds have been changing. But there is a long way to go to get it all right.

Meanwhile, sadly, the only way for him to go at this moment is to put up yet another mountain of runs.
 
It's sad the he received racial abuse. This is uncalled for. But the reason he was criticised was because he was a poor play of spin and didn’t perform enough away from home. He needs to take responsibility for that.
 
In my opinion, he was the next captain inline after Smith and Warner got banned but that would've made his spot permanent in the team, and this was something that Justin Langer and selectors just could digest.

So they kicked him out of the team based on a couple of bad performances and went with Tim Paine who hardly qualifies to play on a club level, let alone being made the captain of Australia TEST team.

And hard luck to Khawajja that Marnus performed at the right time, so he quickly made a permanent spot in the team.

I think Usman Khawaja's career was purposely destroyed. He was hardly ever given a permanent batting position, and was kept in and out of the team so that he could never build confidence and momentum.

Couple of years ago, he had the BBL set ablaze with his batting but the national selectors didn't pick him in the national T20.
 
Most Pakistanis living in England, Australia etc receive racism. Mainly from white people.
 
PakLFC said:
Warne's comment of calling Usman "lazy" only reaffirms my belief that most Aussies are institutionally racists. Could be that I am also generalising like Warne as well but their players are often involved in arguments with the opposition. Aussies have a very racist reputation from Lehmann abusing Murali to there people beating up Indian students some years back. I do regard Australian's as being one off the most racist people on the planet no doubt about it. There are racial undertones in a lot things their commentators say. Under the mask Warne looks like a proper racist to me.
Click to expand...

Remember Greg Ritchie the former Australian Cricketer, who use to do 'Ma hat ma coot' routine. Which was full of racial slurs and respected commentators like late Ritchie Benaud would laugh like it was such a great humor or something.

And when West Indies would tour Australia in the 70s. Half the stadium would be uttering monkey noises. Disgraceful
 
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‘They’ll pick the white guy’: Usman Khawaja on race and smashing cricket’s inner sanctum

“Did you grow up supporting the Australian cricket team?” asks Usman Khawaja, before nodding his head in understanding when I, a fellow Pakistani-born Australian, admitted that I didn’t.

“Neither did I,” the 36-year-old says. “I didn’t support Australia for a long time, up until I was 13 or 14. I just could not relate to the Australian cricket team.”

It’s an extraordinary thing to hear from Australia’s opening batter who has played more than 100 international matches for the country, including 56 Tests, has a higher average than legends of the game like Adam Gilchrist, David Warner, Justin Langer, Michael Slater, Ian Chappell and Mark Waugh, and – just a few days before our interview – scored a career high of 195 runs against South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground, inspiring chants of “King Uzzy”.

But, as shocking as it might be for some Australians to hear a member of one of the nation’s most venerated institutions – the men’s Test cricket team – admit to struggling to identify with it when he was younger, it’s actually deeply relatable for those of us from similar backgrounds.

It’s one of the sad ironies of cricket in this country: Australians from South Asian backgrounds (from countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) are one of the country’s largest migrant blocs and are cricket obsessed, yet often regard the team of their adopted country with indifference or even antipathy. Why?

“When I looked at the TV, I saw these really brash, really stubborn, beer-drinking white Australians that were the same kind of guys racially vilifying me while I was playing cricket,” Khawaja explained in an interview for The Drop, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s culture podcast. “I was like, ‘Well, why would I support this team that doesn’t support me?’

“I found that really hard growing up, and I think that bit of resentment still sticks with a lot of young kids, particularly from ethnic backgrounds, that always get called names and racially vilified. ‘Curry muncher’ is the one that sticks out to me the most. I used to get called that all the time.”

The frustration Khawaja and others, including me, felt wasn’t with the individual cricketers who play for Australia. In fact, his father was a huge fan of Australian cricketers like Bill Lawry. The issue was with white Australia itself and the way it marginalised and belittled those from diverse backgrounds. The national men’s cricket team were seen as avatars of that kind of culture, a view reinforced by how white the team has been throughout its history.

Nasser Hussain, the son of an Indian Muslim, played his first Test match for England in 1990 and was appointed captain in 1999. It took another 12 years before Australia appointed its first, and still only, Muslim player: Usman Khawaja. Only two Indigenous men have ever played Test cricket for Australia: Jason Gillespie and Scott Boland. More than 460 men have played Test cricket for Australia, just a touch under 99 percent of them have been white.

It’s an embarrassing record that helps explain why even now, nearly two decades after Khawaja started to shrug off his distaste of the Australian team, many younger Australians from South Asian backgrounds still can’t get behind the baggy green.

“I met three guys yesterday who said ‘Good luck in India [the location of the next Test series] Uzzy, we hope you kill it. But we’re still gonna support India’,” Khawaja tells me. “I started laughing. They were obviously kids of Indian background but I asked ‘Where were you born?’ and they said ‘Australia’.

“I was like, ‘Come on man! Support me, support Australia, what are you doing! I’m here, I’m representing you!’”

There’s a tinge of frustration to Khawaja’s tone when he tells this story. There were no Muslim or South Asian role models to look up to in Australia when he was growing up in the 1990s, he tells me, and he clearly wants the next generation to see him as someone carving a path forward to make space for more people like him. But, given he held the same views about the Australian team at their age he understands their reluctance to chant “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie”.

It’s an issue he’s raised with his teammates, too.

“Before the first Test against the West Indies [late last year] I did talk to the guys about how much we’re loved around Australia, from white Australia, but not necessarily from the rest of the population,” he says. “There’s still such a big subcontinental community that loves cricket that don’t support the Australian cricket team.”

As the first South Asian-born, Muslim Australian Test cricket player, the easiest thing for Khawaja to do would be to keep his head down, share generic platitudes about how great Australia is and not rock the boat. But while he clearly loves Australia and playing cricket for the national team, he doesn’t believe in staying quiet about the country’s race problem – and how it impacts cricket.

He has regularly shared stories of his experiences with security, who often don’t believe he’s a member of the Australian cricket team, even when he’s wearing his kit. At the most recent Test match at the SCG, where he scored his personal best of 195 runs, he tells me that security were eyeing him off, even when he was walking with the rest of the team – clearly unsure whether he belonged.

These stories, as depressing as they are, can be strangely vindicating for those who’ve experienced the same thing. If even an Australian Test batter is being racially profiled while doing his job, maybe we’re not imagining it when we feel judged or treated differently in our workplaces, in social settings or even on the street.

Khawaja says that he doesn’t blame individuals for these kinds of encounters, instead pointing to the fact that because Australian cricket has been synonymous with whiteness for so long, many people find it hard to believe a South Asian would actually be part of it.

So, is it changing? Not really, according to Khawaja.

“You see cricketers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, everywhere at a young level. But as you get up at a high-performance level, it just drops exponentially. It just drops, drops, drops.

“That’s where I’m trying to work with Cricket Australia saying, ‘Look, guys ... you invest a lot of money into this, but something’s not going right. You’ve been doing it for 10 years and nothing’s changed’.”

Khawaja is clear on what the main problem is: the overwhelming whiteness of cricket administrators, selectors and coaches.

“At that high-performance level, you don’t realise it but a lot of the coaches [and] selectors are white,” he says. “There’s subconscious bias. If you have two cricketers, one brown, one white, both the same, the white coach is going to pick the white cricketer just because he has a son that might look similar to him. It’s what’s familiar to him.”

It’s a depressing, yet accurate, summary of the situation. The entire board of Cricket Australia is currently white, as are all the selectors, and the senior coaching staff.

But it also raises a key question: has that lack of diversity among the top echelons of Australia’s cricketing establishment affected Khawaja’s own career, particularly considering the controversial years he spent failing to be selected in the national side?

“There’s been plenty of times I should’ve been picked for teams and I wasn’t,” he says bluntly. “But it just made me have a bigger chip on my shoulder.”

As well as working with Cricket Australia and the players’ association to boost diversity at all levels of the game, Khawaja also undertakes outreach with underrepresented communities.

In one episode of the second season of the Amazon Prime Video series The Test, Khawaja is seen visiting a Muslim school in Brisbane, sharing his experiences of racism and helping to inspire students to give cricket a go. He sees his involvement in the show, a fly-on-the-wall style documentary series that captures raw moments inside locker rooms and among the team, as an important part of breaking down the “inner-sanctum” of Australia cricket.

“We go through the same things that the majority of the population goes through,” he explains. “And when you break that down, and people can relate to that ... I think that’s that’s really, really massive.”

The behind-the-scenes documentary follows the Australian team as they play the Ashes, tour Pakistan as Pat Cummins takes over the captaincy.

If anything, he wishes the show was even more unfiltered, telling me he texted the show’s directors asking them why they had edited down his infamous exchange with former coach Justin Langer in 2018, ahead of the series against Pakistan in the UAE.

Whether it’s on-screen, on social media, or in conversations with his teammates and coaches, expect Usman Khawaja to keep talking about the changes needed in Australian cricket.

“We’ve come a long way,” he says. “But I’ll keep doing it because I want people to know what it’s like.”

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-a...-cricket-s-inner-sanctum-20230112-p5cbzm.html
 
MenInG said:
‘They’ll pick the white guy’: Usman Khawaja on race and smashing cricket’s inner sanctum

“You see cricketers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, everywhere at a young level. But as you get up at a high-performance level, it just drops exponentially. It just drops, drops, drops.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-a...-cricket-s-inner-sanctum-20230112-p5cbzm.html
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Exactly what I've seen. There are more south asians playing cricket than white players in the lower levels and in Juniors but the top level of Grade cricket is filled with some very ordinary white players.

You can say there is more of an emphasis on fitness and fielding at the grade level and I've seen situations where the more talented South Asian player have been benched over the less talented white player all because he could field and had better fitness.
 
Usman Khawaja reflects on identity and inclusivity in Australia: ‘If I don’t stand up for that, who will?’

Usman Khawaja shared his insights on his challenges growing up in Australian cricket’s predominantly “white” culture.

Speaking to ABC Sport, Khawaja, who was born in Pakistan and moved to Australia as a child, described the pressure he felt to conform to a certain image in order to succeed in the sport he loved.

“I wanted to be as ‘Australian’ as possible,” Khawaja said, recalling his growing years as a young cricketer.

“I wanted to be as white as possible, because I felt like that’s what I had to do to play for Australia.”

Khawaja noted that, traditionally, Australian cricket has been predominantly represented by players by players from the white backgrounds, making it challenging for him to fit in as a Pakistani Muslim immigrant.

The Australian opener also opened up how the transformative events of September 11, 2001 added a new layer of difficulty to his experience.

“After September 11, things changed a lot, you know, everywhere around the world. There were a lot of things I’d grown up seeing and experiencing.” He spoke of how this shift affected him and others from similar backgrounds, often resulting in a sense of exclusion or alienation in broader society.

In the recent years, Khawaja has embraced his identity, both as a respected cricketer and as a voice for those who don’t have a platform. He reflected on what legacy he wants to leave behind, explaining, “The last five years, in particular, I’ve thought about what legacy I want to leave in this game. I’ve played cricket for a long time, and people will remember me as a cricketer. But there’s so much about Australia that I love and want everyone else to experience.”

Khawaja emphasised the importance of making Australian cricket accessible to people from all backgrounds. Khawaja said that many Australians have misconceptions about people who are different from them, but hopes that his presence in the sport can break down some of these barriers.

“People are often scared of what they don’t understand,” he remarked. “But you don’t need to understand everything. I’m still a human being; I’m still a person. Where I’ve come from or what I believe in is irrelevant.”

Usman Khwaja expressed concern over the divisiveness he sees, not only in sports but within the larger Australian community. Khawaja believes that certain societal forces attempt to drive wedges between people based on race or religion. “When I see people creating hate, trying to divide the Australian community based on beliefs or backgrounds, I feel an obligation to stand up for all the people like myself and those who don’t have a voice,” Khawaja asserted. “If I don’t stand up for that, who will?”

SOURCE https://indianexpress.com/article/s...nd-inclusivity-in-australian-cricket-9654013/
 
BouncerGuy said:
Usman Khawaja reflects on identity and inclusivity in Australia: ‘If I don’t stand up for that, who will?’

Usman Khawaja shared his insights on his challenges growing up in Australian cricket’s predominantly “white” culture.

Speaking to ABC Sport, Khawaja, who was born in Pakistan and moved to Australia as a child, described the pressure he felt to conform to a certain image in order to succeed in the sport he loved.

“I wanted to be as ‘Australian’ as possible,” Khawaja said, recalling his growing years as a young cricketer.

“I wanted to be as white as possible, because I felt like that’s what I had to do to play for Australia.”

Khawaja noted that, traditionally, Australian cricket has been predominantly represented by players by players from the white backgrounds, making it challenging for him to fit in as a Pakistani Muslim immigrant.

The Australian opener also opened up how the transformative events of September 11, 2001 added a new layer of difficulty to his experience.

“After September 11, things changed a lot, you know, everywhere around the world. There were a lot of things I’d grown up seeing and experiencing.” He spoke of how this shift affected him and others from similar backgrounds, often resulting in a sense of exclusion or alienation in broader society.

In the recent years, Khawaja has embraced his identity, both as a respected cricketer and as a voice for those who don’t have a platform. He reflected on what legacy he wants to leave behind, explaining, “The last five years, in particular, I’ve thought about what legacy I want to leave in this game. I’ve played cricket for a long time, and people will remember me as a cricketer. But there’s so much about Australia that I love and want everyone else to experience.”

Khawaja emphasised the importance of making Australian cricket accessible to people from all backgrounds. Khawaja said that many Australians have misconceptions about people who are different from them, but hopes that his presence in the sport can break down some of these barriers.

“People are often scared of what they don’t understand,” he remarked. “But you don’t need to understand everything. I’m still a human being; I’m still a person. Where I’ve come from or what I believe in is irrelevant.”

Usman Khwaja expressed concern over the divisiveness he sees, not only in sports but within the larger Australian community. Khawaja believes that certain societal forces attempt to drive wedges between people based on race or religion. “When I see people creating hate, trying to divide the Australian community based on beliefs or backgrounds, I feel an obligation to stand up for all the people like myself and those who don’t have a voice,” Khawaja asserted. “If I don’t stand up for that, who will?”

SOURCE https://indianexpress.com/article/s...nd-inclusivity-in-australian-cricket-9654013/
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Lol Usman Khawaja tries to be as Australian as possible, he's considered a hero, a goat and an amazing test opener for Australia.

I try to do it and I'm a fake aussie who hates the rizzu regime. 🤦🏻🤦🏻
 
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