{"id":8186,"date":"2020-12-10T18:53:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T19:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=8186"},"modified":"2020-12-10T20:56:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T20:56:34","slug":"khawajas-harsh-reality-check-for-australian-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=8186","title":{"rendered":"Khawaja's harsh reality check for Australian cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Test batsman Usman Khawaja<\/a> has called for a more culturally diverse Cricket Australia board which better reflects the country's multicultural society.<\/p>\n

Khawaja, who was born in Pakistan and became the first Muslim to play for Australia, acknowledged that the game has been moving in the right direction but noted there's still a long way to go.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old, who hasn't played for Australia since the 2019 Ashes, said the game needs to move with the times.<\/p>\n

"Things are starting to happen," Khawaja told the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"This stuff doesn't happen overnight, it takes a long time. I've said for a long time I'd like to see the Australian cricket team be represented by what Australia as a whole really is."<\/p>\n

He said he wants to see more diversity not just in administration roles, but also in coaching.<\/p>\n

"There's definitely been times where I haven't been able to relate to certain coaches, certain individuals, even certain board members who come from a very different time,"\u00a0<\/p>\n

"At the same time I think the same applies for multicultural Australia. We need the same thing so when I look at the CA board I see that as representative of all Australians.<\/p>\n

"Sometimes it's very hard for a subcontinent person that's come from a different culture to be able to relate to a coach who's grown up slightly differently, to be able to talk to them, to do this sort of thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"At the end of the day you still have to pick the best people around. That's some of the things we have to take into consideration if we want to grow as a nation and sport in my point of view."<\/p>\n

Khawaja's name has been floated as a potential opening batsman for next week's first Test against India, with David Warner already ruled out<\/a> and rising star Will Pucovski in doubt<\/a> after suffering concussion.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Joe Burns has barely made a run this summer, leaving selectors in a quandary ahead of the Adelaide Test.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking <\/em><\/strong>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Test batsman Usman Khawaja has called for a more culturally diverse Cricket Australia board which better reflects the country's multicultural society. Khawaja, who was […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8188,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8186\/revisions\/8188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}