Khawaja raises voice on racial profiling in his Cricket career having been treated differently because of his race and religion.
‘Don’t gaslight me’ – Khawaja hits out at racial stereotyping.
Usman Khawaja has expressed his frustration and sadness at being treated differently from other Australian players throughout his career, claiming that the criticism he received for his back injury at the start of the Ashes series had racial overtones.
After the fifth Test match against England at the SCG, which begins on Sunday, Khawaja announced his retirement from international cricket during a 50-minute press conference on Friday.
In front of a sizable group of reporters, including his parents, two kids, wife Rachel, and several members of his extended family, Khawaja spoke for the first time about his feelings following criticism for playing three days of golf before to the Perth Test.
The first Muslim to represent Australia in Test cricket, Khawaja was born in Pakistan. He claimed that the criticism was consistent with what he has encountered during his career.
“I’ve always felt a little bit different, even to now,” Khawaja said. “I’m a coloured cricketer. The Australian cricket team is, in my opinion … that’s our best team. It’s our pride and joy. But I’ve also felt very different in a lot of respects, different by the way I’ve been treated, different for how things have happened.
“I had back spasms, and that’s something I couldn’t control. But the way the media and the past players came out and attacked me, I could have copped it for two days, but I copped it for about five days straight. And it wasn’t even about my performances.
“It was about something very personal, it’s about my preparation. And the way everyone came at me about my preparation, it was quite personal in terms of things like, he’s not committed to the team, he was only worried about himself, he played this golf comp the day before, he’s selfish, he doesn’t train hard enough, he didn’t train with them the day before the game, he’s lazy. These are the same stereotypes, the racial stereotypes I’ve grown up with my whole life.
“I just thought that the media and the old players and everyone else had moved past it, but we obviously haven’t fully moved past it, because I’ve never seen anyone being treated like that in the Australian cricket team before.”
Golf-related injuries have happened to Australian players in the past. Josh Inglis was disqualified from the 2022 T20 World Cup after cutting his hand on the course, while Glenn Maxwell missed an ODI in the 2023 World Cup due to a concussion he sustained after falling off the back of a golf cart.
Khawaja claimed that because of his race, he could give innumerable other instances of athletes who had not faced the same degree of criticism.
“There’s still a little bit out there, which I still have to fight every single day, which is the frustrating thing for me,” Khawaja said. “I can give you countless number of guys who play golf the day before and have been injured. You guys haven’t said a thing. No one else said a thing.
“I can give you even more, probably guys who’ve had 15 schooners the night before and then got injured. No one said a word. That’s all right. They’re just being Aussie larrikins, right? They’re just being lads. So for me, that was the frustrating part. But when I get injured, everyone went at my credibility and who I am as a person.”
Khawaja also mentioned the criticism he received at the end of the previous summer when he went to the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne while Queensland was playing South Australia in Adelaide in an attempt to qualify for the Shield final, missing the Sheffield Shield season’s final round due to hamstring tightness.
When another Australian player Nathan Lyon attended the Grand Prix and missed the entire Shield season due to a hip injury, and Steven Smith missed the remainder of the season after winning the Champions Trophy in order to spend time in New York, Khawaja once more felt he was being singled out.
“You guys had a crack at me for missing a game, yet plenty of my team-mates, who were not playing, you didn’t say a word to them,” Khawaja said. “So for me, I’ve been dealing with this stuff a long time. And for me, I know I’m up here talking about topics and people are like, okay, Uzzy’s here, he’s playing the race card again, but don’t gaslight me.
“I felt that I had to bring this up. I didn’t want to talk about this, but I just want the journey for the next Usman Khawaja to be different. I want you to treat him or her all the same, not have racial stereotypes of who they might be. Treat them with the same cloak that you would treat any of my wholesome other cricketers that I play with.”