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Image: AP
Star batsman Usman Khawaja has opened up on the racism that exists in Australia and all the trouble he has to deal with despite being a prominent player of the country’s cricket team. The 36-year-old explained that ‘subconscious bias’ exists in Australia as the selectors would often pick someone who is ‘white’ rather than of another race.
While speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Usman Khawaja commented on the Australian team selections by stating, “There’s subconscious bias. If you have two cricketers, one brown, and one white, 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.”
The 36-year-old went on to add that he has begun working with Cricket Australia to address this grave concern as the racial landscape has not changed in the country despite the cricketing body’s best attempts. “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,” explained Khawaja.
Khawaja also touched upon his earlier years when he was subjected to a lot of racial taunts.
“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.”
This is not the first time that Khawaja has opened up on the topic of racial bias as he once also took to Twitter to explain how he was stopped at a hotel while he was with the rest of the Australian cricket team. On that occasion, he was asked if he was with the rest of the group despite wearing a jersey of the cricket team.
You get use to it. I got stopped 3 times last year at our hotel, while in Australian Kit and asked if I was with the Australian Cricket team… 🤦🏾♂️#youdontlookaustralian😂 #orsotheysay https://t.co/XSpsX0KXdL
Even though Khawaja was born in Pakistan, he moved to Australia at a very young age and has since represented the country from the junior level to now the senior level. Since making his debut in 2011, Khawaja has represented the Australian cricket team in 56 Tests, 40 ODIs, and 9 T20Is.
During this duration, he has scored 4,162 Test runs, 1,554 runs in ODIs, and 241 runs in T20Is at a fantastic overall average of 44.78. When it comes to stats in a year, 2022 could perhaps be one of Khawaja’s best years as he scored a whopping 1080 runs from just 11 matches and at a brilliant average of 67.50.
