Usman Khawaja shares a story of him asking his mother, ‘Yeh kya keh rahi hai?’
Australia batter Usman Khawaja who won the Community Impact Award at the Cricket Australia Awards for his off field philanthropic work through his Usman Khawaja Foundation narrated a story about his mother and how the foundation came to be.
“I came to Australia when I was 4 years old. English is my 2nd language. I don’t speak a word of English. My kindergarten teacher asked me how it’s going on day one and I still remember that I looked to my mom and said, ‘Ye kya keh rahi hain? (What is she saying?). She was like ‘Oh god I got a kid here who does not speak any English.”
“I remember from the start that the one thing that was constant was sports. I didn’t speak a word of English but I was playing footy, tag, cricket and everything there was on the school yards and it showed me that sports breaks down all barriers and that was one very important part of my life. The second part of my life, which my mom would attest to is the studying side. Coming from a subcontinental family, it was very important.”
The two facets of the Usman Khawaja Foundation:
1: Allowing kids from low socio-economic backgrounds to play sport for free2: Giving grants, scholarships and things needed for kids’ education
Both close to Khawaja’s ❤️ pic.twitter.com/REQ6CzAQcP
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 30, 2023
“So the two facets of the Usman Khawaja Foundation are allowing kids from low socio-economic backgrounds to play sport for free and the second part is giving grants, scholarships and things needed for kids’ education. Both very close to my heart and that is how it started,” he added.
Khawaja also won the inaugural Shane Warne Men’s Test Player of the Year award in the aforementioned awards show. Since returning to the Test side in January last year, Khawaja accumulated 1020 runs atan average of 78.46 during the voting period.
