‘The beauty of immigration': Inside Khawaja's heartfelt mission for change
As he reflects on his upbringing, recalling the moments of isolation and solitude he experienced as a new Australian, Usman Khawaja delivers a telling declaration.
'I've had tough times and a tough journey, and I'm really glad to say that in a lot of ways, Australia has grown and evolved,' the 38-year-old cricketer says.
'It's so much more inclusive now than it's ever been, but we've still got a long way to go.'
Speaking as the Usman Khawaja Foundation announced a partnership with SSI (Settlement Services International), the Australian Test batsman opened up about the frustrations he feels in the lead-up to next month's federal election.
When he hears the nation's housing crisis being blamed on immigration, he feels a pang of disappointment.
When he hears people express their angst over new arrivals, he often asks if they're a cricket fan and a follower of his. When they reply 'yes', he's quick to remind them of his upbringing.
Khawaja recalls his five-person family going from a relatively high income in Pakistan to living in a two-bedroom apartment in Australia. His mum would be angry if he drank too much milk due to its expense.
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'When I hear immigration getting blamed for the housing crisis, which I fundamentally know is not true – housing prices went through the roof when no immigrants were coming through in COVID – it disappoints me because I think Australia was built on the back of immigration,' he says.
'Unless you're First Nations or a person of Aboriginal descent, we're all immigrants in one way or another. I think Australia's greatest asset is its immigrant community who've come into Australia, contributed to Australia and contributed to make it such a great country.
'Look at Gout Gout right now, everyone is so excited … we have a potential guy who might win a gold medal, and his family are an immigrant family.
'That's the beauty of immigration.'
The Khawaja Foundation is his passion away from cricket, providing grants, assistance and educational support to young people and families from refugee, immigrant, Indigenous, rural, remote and low socio-economic backgrounds
Khawaja has used his profile and foundation to strive to eradicate the barriers he experienced, in the hope that more multicultural backgrounds will be represented among cricket's upper echelon.
'Unless you've lived through those experiences, it's hard to relate. I've been called names – the classic 'curry muncher' – and [told] 'you stink', and they'd assume I was Indian … it was a lack of understanding, all those racial slurs and things you had to go through.
'Once I played for Australia, you don't feel like you fully belong at the start. I don't want the next Usman Khawaja – male or female – to go through that same journey, they shouldn't have to.
'I think that's one of the things that's held cricket so far back. Look at the faces we have in the community of Australia right now, you walk through the streets and you see it, but we don't see that representation in the Australian cricket team.'
Asked about his dispute with Queensland Cricket, Khawaja chose not to comment. However, he did call for more multicultural representation in cricket's coaching ranks, something he feels would address the lack of ethnic players reaching the pinnacle of the sport.
He has witnessed the amount of investment that has gone into multicultural pathways, but stresses that with so little change in the elite landscape, the time has come to directly consult the people and families who might help shape how such programs could tap into the next generation.
'The people making the decisions in the past never experienced racism or never experienced being segregated or not being picked in a team because they were different,' Khawaja says.
'Now we have an opportunity to actually engage with people in the community; engage with the Test cricketers who have been through a lot of things in their life, who can openly talk about it … and then shape the way we have our programs to make the game more inclusive.
'It's not just the players; you look through the coaches in Australian cricket – and not just Australian cricket coaches but throughout high performances of Australian cricket – they've been very white-dominated in the past.
'There hasn't been any avenue for ethnic, multicultural coaches to come through the system because we haven't produced multicultural cricketers in the past. Coaches who come back into the system are past players, and so there's a whole cycle that takes a long time to get around.
'I wouldn't say we dropped the ball; I just think maybe it was a misallocation of where our funds should have been going. It's all about learning and trying to do stuff slightly differently to get a different result.'
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