Whether or not it’s as a newly appointed Cricket Australia Multicultural Ambassador or because the official new face of Amazon Prime’s Australian protection of the 2024 T20 World Cup, Usman Khawaja is a promoter’s dream.
Softly however firmly spoken, unafraid to talk his thoughts on causes large and small and exuding an air of authority with out a trace of the vanity that often goes hand in hand with it, the 37-year previous is as relaxed away from the enjoying floor as he at all times has been on it.
Whether or not inspecting bats on a tour of the Brian Lara Cricket Academy facility in Trinidad – certainly not one of the Papua New Guinean gamers utilizing the changerooms for a warm-up sport would object to their tools being blessed by the Australian opener’s fingers – or practising his golf swing within the resort lobby forward of a visit to New York to observe the town play host to India and Pakistan in a couple of weeks’ time, there may be an air of ease to Khawaja that doesn’t abate even when surrounded by cameras and flashing lights as each Prime Video and the ICC take advantage of out of each alternative to indicate him off.
It’s this facet of his character that was as soon as some extent of criticism among the many Australian cricket-loving neighborhood at giant: the ‘laidback’ description as soon as a near-permanent affixation to any descriptions of Khawaja the batter grew to become synonymous with a way of frustration {that a} participant as gifted as he might even mildly fail to stay as much as the whopping expectations he set dominating Sheffield Defend cricket as a younger up-and-comer some 15 years in the past.
Maybe no member of the Australian staff has had as a lot of a reputational shift as a result of publicity granted by Prime’s The Take a look at documentary over its three seasons as Khawaja: famously confronting then-coach Justin Langer concerning the enjoying group ‘strolling on eggshells’ across the famously robust legend.
Aided by his extraordinary ongoing run of type since breaking again into the Take a look at XI in January 2022, having averaged 53 and locked down an opener’s spot alongside first David Warner and now Steve Smith, the general public’s notion has shifted from the participant of promise who by no means fairly took it severely sufficient to fulfil his outstanding expertise earlier than being ousted halfway by way of the 2019 Ashes, to a martyr jilted out of his rightful spot within the staff by a vengeful coach upset at his frankness and a dominant power in one among Australia’s most profitable intervals ever.
Usman Khawaja was given a reprimand for sporting a black armband to protest the violence in Gaza through the Australian summer season. (Picture by Will Russell/Getty Photographs)
For Khawaja, although, the set off for his reputational rebuild isn’t fairly so simple as that: it’s ‘onerous to say’, in keeping with him, whether or not he’s seen in a different way because of the entry granted to Prime behind the scenes of the Australian males’s staff.
“It’s [the series] given individuals extra of an perception of what I’m like amongst my teammates within the changerooms,” he stated.
“I’m a little bit of a pest, I wish to joke round, however when we have to have onerous, critical conversations, I’m at all times there to have them.
Watch stay and solely from June 2 – It’s on Prime“Individuals simply see me the best way I’m on the sector – I attempt to management my feelings, I attempt to keep fairly subdued and simply think about the sport – they in all probability assume that that’s what I’m like on a regular basis, however that’s not like that in any respect. I’m fairly the other.
“A variety of occasions you see the true Uzzy, particularly within the Amazon stuff, as a result of I neglect the cameras are there.”
With the Australian T20 World Cup squad additionally in Trinidad for a pair of warm-up video games earlier than the event correct begins, Khawaja has had loads of alternatives to work together with a bunch of which many seem alongside him within the Take a look at staff.
Whereas removed from completed with worldwide cricket, the expertise of being on tour with out being a part of the staff is ‘very bizarre’ – and unlikely to really feel regular anytime quickly.
“I’ve solely been concerned in groups which have performed the sport, and been with the staff within the resort room,” he stated.
“It’s very completely different strolling down, sitting down, seeing the fellows are available in of their staff equipment – and I’m not there to play cricket.
“I don’t suppose I’m absolutely prepared for it. I’m nonetheless a cricketer initially, so I haven’t fairly let go of that but. Sooner or later, after I do dangle up the boots, it’ll take a little bit of time to get used to.”
Khawaja strikes as a pure match for a broadcaster ought to he select to take that path post-playing days: infinitely educated concerning the sport, his affable persona and robust convictions are tailor made for a profession behind the mic, whereas his near-universal recognition would certainly solely be to his benefit.
However for the veteran proper now, his priorities are twofold: persevering with his late-career renaissance with blockbuster residence summers in opposition to India and England in his fast future, and his endeavours as an formally appointed CA Multicultural Ambassador, alongside fellow present Australian cricketers Alana King, Scott Boland and others.
Khawaja has been concerned closely on this entrance for a lot of the later phases of his profession, and has by no means been shy in expressing the problems he perceives in Australian cricket: a little bit over 12 months in the past, he hit out on the lack of range in Australian cricket from the grassroots up, together with his assertion that coaches would prioritise white gamers proving divisive.
“In case you have two cricketers, one brown, one white, each the identical, the white coach goes to select the white cricketer simply because he has a son that may look much like him,” Khawaja instructed the Sydney Morning Herald in January 2023.
Essentially the most encouraging signal he sees is in CA’s conviction to assault the problem with a plan, reasonably than merely pouring cash into making an attempt to repair a long-standing and deeply embedded downside with cricket’s tradition Australia-wide.
“It’s good to see that Cricket Australia are literally branching out into the neighborhood – not simply cricket gamers, however individuals which might be concerned in cricket outdoors the neighborhood,” he stated.
“We’ve all obtained to start out someplace, and that’s what I’ve been saying to Cricket Australia – what we’ve been doing up to now has not been working for us.
Usman Khawaja celebrates his century through the 2023 first Ashes Take a look at in England. (Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Photographs)
“Cricket Australia have invested some huge cash in multiculturalism, notably in cricket: we haven’t fairly seen the rewards of it. What do they are saying – the definition of madness is doing the identical factor over and over and anticipating completely different outcomes.
“I believe for as soon as, Cricket Australia are literally altering the goalposts a little bit bit, making an attempt stuff a little bit bit in a different way, partaking with the neighborhood. These are all issues that I’ve been making an attempt to push with them for the final 5, six years. It’s very nice to really see some actions and issues in work.”
However whereas preliminary steps are robust, Khawaja is aware of higher than anybody the top outcome will outline this new initiative – and a future the place cricketers of all backgrounds and ethnicities are in a position to shine, with tales like his rise from his Pakistan birthplace to the very best echelons of the game not as distinctive as they’re now.
“We’ve nonetheless obtained a protracted method to go,” he stated.
“It’s at all times good to do this stuff on face worth, and present individuals what you’re doing, however the finish outcome will communicate for itself. We have to see larger illustration of the Australian neighborhood within the Australian cricket staff.
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“You’ll discover that out in ten years whether or not all the pieces we’re doing now’s working. For those who’re nonetheless not seeing that, nicely, then it’s nonetheless not working.
“I’m wanting ahead to seeing what occurs.”
The reigning Males’s Take a look at Cricketer of the 12 months and a World Take a look at Champion as well, Khawaja’s legacy on the sector can solely be enhanced from right here.
The affect he leaves behind off it, nonetheless, could solely be simply beginning to develop.
