Usman Khawaja, an Australian batter who first appeared in a test match in 2011, has solidified his place in the team over the course of the past several years.
Usman Khawaja made history by becoming the first Muslim player to ever represent Australia in international cricket. He was born in Pakistan. The left-handed batter recently gained a lot of attention after he came close to scoring his first double-hundred score in a test match during the series against South Africa.
However, Usman Khawaja recently discussed the racial harassment and name-calling he experienced while growing up in Australia in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
“When I was growing up, I had a really difficult time with that, and I believe that a little amount of resentment still lingers in the hearts of a lot of young children, particularly those who come from ethnic backgrounds in which they are constantly called names and racially demonised.
The phrase “Curry muncher” is the one that has stayed in my mind the most. Usman Khawaja was quoted as saying “I used to get called it all the time,” which was published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Usman Khawaja also disclosed that he was not selected for the team in his early days simply because of his race, as the coaches and selectors chose a white player over him at the time. Khawaja was a black cricketer.
“At that high-performance level, you might not be aware of it, but a significant number of the coaches [and] selectors are white. There is unconscious bias at play here.
If you have two cricketers, one brown and one white, and they are both the same, the white coach will choose the white cricketer just because he has a son who might look like him. According to Khawaja, “that is what he is accustomed to doing.”
He stated his point of view in a direct manner, “There have been plenty of occasions I should’ve been picked for teams and I wasn’t.” “However, that only served to give me more of a chip on my shoulder,” he continued.
Usman Khawaja also took to Twitter earlier in December and disclosed that he had been questioned about his affiliation with the Australian national team while he was staying at a hotel for the squad.
The 36-year-old hitter has played in 56 tests and has scored a total of 4162 runs, including 13 centuries and 19 half-centuries. In addition to this, he has participated in 40 one-day internationals and has scored 1554 runs with a strike rate of 84.09
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