Usman Khawaja has revealed why he kept his rheumatoid arthritis, which threatened his playing future, a secret for his entire Test career.
The former Test star is releasing his autobiography “for cricket lovers and non-cricket lovers” on November 10.
“We are all human and we go through the ups and downs of life. I go through the ups and downs of cricket and it is highlighted because everyone sees it,” Khawaja said.
One of the key aspects of Khawaja’s career that the public did not know about was his diagnosis of arthritis at the age of 22, when the pain in his left knee was so severe that he could not walk 10 meters to the toilet.
Only regular injections kept him up and able to play cricket. He still has it.
“It was debilitating. I had an injection last night,” Khawaja said in Brisbane on Monday. “It was one reason I turned my back at the end of my career, but I couldn’t tell anyone.
“I was never injured until I had arthritis, but after that I was injured a lot and had to find a way to get my body back on track. Even my best friend from high school, Ardil, didn’t know until a year ago.”
Why did Khawaja make a statement about this? “I wouldn’t want anyone to use it against me.” “I felt like I had all these stereotypes that I was trying to defeat in Australian cricket and I didn’t want to use that as an excuse.”
Keeping the disease a secret was a feat in itself. He initially said he was grateful to people he knew at Cricket NSW, Cricket Australia and various medical staff who “followed their code of ethics and didn’t say anything”.
Khawaja, who scored 6,229 Test runs in 16 centuries, did not engage a ghostwriter for his book for a simple reason.
“I didn’t think anyone could cover my story like me because no one has gone through the same journey in Australian cricket as I have,” he said.
“An immigrant, brown, Pakistani Muslim kid coming from abroad to play our national game, that’s something I don’t feel comfortable writing about anybody else.”
Khawaja met Australian captain Pat Cummins to brief him on the aspect of his book, which deals with the infamous Sandpapergate ball-tampering episode in South Africa in 2018.
“I didn’t go out for shock and awe in my book,” smiled Khawaja. “This is my story. People have learned over time that I’m quite open and honest about a lot of things. My goal in my story was to relate to everyone.
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“I love biographies, and cricket in particular. I’ve found that people talk a lot about cricket but often don’t talk much about themselves.”
Khawaja writes about his life in the subcontinent and then his life as a cricketer in Australia. He said there were “funny stories” and “great learnings”.
“There are tough times with the racial slur as well, but together it’s a story unlike anything you’ll read in a cricket biography,” he said.
Khawaja proved to be a trailblazer in Australian cricket opening the door for others to follow.
“Before me there was no other me but now there are a lot of players coming in with a subcontinental background,” he said. “You have Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha and Gurinder Sandhu.”
Tanveer Sangha and Sandhu both played white ball cricket for Australia.
“They haven’t cracked Tests, that’s the toughest,” Khawaja said. “That’s always the goal. When you start seeing a Test team represented by a multicultural community, you know you’re making progress.”