Australia’s Test cricketer, Usman Khawaja has opened up about the difficulties he faced while growing up as a Pakistani in Australia.
Khawaja, who recently made his Test comeback with a brilliant hundred against England in the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney, revealed that ‘being different’ was the greatest difficulty he came across while growing as a kid in Australia.
“Growing up, I think the greatest difficulty was ‘being different.’ It was always hard to explain to people why I was doing things differently. It wasn’t quite understanding. No matter who you are, it is human nature that you are always afraid of what’s different,” Khawaja said in an interview with Cricket Australia.
He said people were always second-guessing, questioning him in the early days of his life.
“I think it was a bit difficult growing up as a Pakistani, being a bit different, having different cultural and different beliefs, but the majority of people that I came across were very accommodating, understanding, and welcoming.
Khawaja revealed that he was just four when his family moved to Australia and did not even know English.
“I am Australian, of course, but I was born in Pakistan, and migrated [to Australia] when I was four. My first language was Urdu, and I learned English at the kindergarten,” he said, adding that, he loved cricket as a sport, and played it from the first day of his school.
The left-handed opener, who has strengthened his case for the upcoming tour to Pakistan, called for the induction of more multicultural players in Team Australia.
“I see a lot of coaches teaching cricket people of all colors at the grassroots level. I think the next step for us is to bring more faces, more multicultural aspect into the Cricket Australia to hopefully get a better representation in the team,” he concluded.
