key points:
- Batsman Usman Khawaja has opened up about three racial profiling incidents while representing Australia.
- Khawaja said security officials have stopped him three times last year to ask if he was part of the team.
- The batsman is the first Pakistan-born and Muslim cricketer to represent the Australian men's side.
Usman Khawaja has scored nearly 4,000 runs for the Australian cricket team in his career so far, placing him among other national cricket legends, and is among the most highly decorated batsmen of the game.
But the star cricketer still seemingly gets overlooked by security officials who quiz him over his involvement with the Australian cricket team during their travels.
Khawaja, who debuted in the Australian men's cricket team more than a decade ago, shared that he was stopped three times last year by security at the hotel, while still wearing the team kit.
He opened up on Twitter on Sunday after Cricbuzz journalist Bharat Sundaresan expressed his frustration with security at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
"To all you wonderful security personnel at cricket venues around Australia. This is my fifth summer here. At some point you have to stop jumping on me, questioning my credentials, talking down to me & asking each other if 'we can trust him?'," Mr Sundaresan wrote on Twitter.
"Like it or not, I’m here to stay," he said.
Khawaja, who made his Australian cricket debut 12 years ago, told the journalist that he'll get used to the racial profiling, touching on his own personal experiences.
"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," the 36-year-old wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Khawaja made headlines in 2011 when he became the first person of Pakistani heritage, and of the Muslim faith, to represent the Australian men's cricket team. He is the current leading run scorer in the Australian side for the 2022 calendar year.
The batsman has been vocal about racial profiling incidents in the past. In 2016, Khawaja needed access to a cricket locker at the Gabba cricket ground in Queensland.
When he asked the Queensland Cricket official for assistance, she headed in the direction of the Pakistan team's changing rooms.
“I was like, ‘no, I’m that way, thank you'."
He set up the Usman Khawaja Foundation, aimed at teaching cricket to children from culturally diverse backgrounds, to make the sport more representative of multicultural Australia.
Khawaja was named to open the batting order in the Boxing Day Test match with teammate David Warner that kicked off on Monday against South Africa.
