Usman Khawaja says ‘Subconscious racial bias continues in Australian cricket’

• Usman Khawaja claims that racial bias still exists in Australian cricket.
• He was born in Pakistan and grew up playing cricket in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
• Lack of representation “at a high-performance level” is significant obstacle.

Usman Khawaja, an Australian Test batsman, claimed that racial bias still permeates cricket in the nation up to the highest level.

The lack of representation “at a high-performance level,” according to Khawaja, is a significant obstacle for non-white players, and the Australian cricket environment is still unchanging.

“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”, Khawaja said

“There’s a subconscious bias. If you have two cricketers, one brown, one white, both the same, 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.”

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

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— Usman Khawaja (@Uz_Khawaja) December 25, 2022

Khawaja’s assertion that all members of the CA board, national selectors, and senior coaching staff are white is accurate.

He said on Twitter last month that he was repeatedly stopped by security to have his identification checked even though he was wearing the right team uniform and in the middle of a game.

“I got stopped 3 times last year at our hotel, while in Australian kit, and [was] asked if I was with the Australian Cricket team…” Khawaja wrote.

Khawaja, who along with seasoned batsman David Warner grew up playing cricket in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, was born in Pakistan and moved there at a young age.

Khawaja scored 5,957 runs while playing for Australia in 105 international games.

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