Troubles of South Asian players in Australian cricket

How kids with Asian backgrounds like current star Usman Khawaja have to tide over numerous obstacles to get selected in various teams Down Under

So many people ask me why Australian cricket has so many players of South Asian heritage excelling at junior levels but it drops off a cliff as they get older. As someone from that group who has lived in Australia for 35-plus years, I have observed that phenomenon myself, as a player, coach and a parent of teenage sons and a daughter who have all made junior State teams.

Some of the reasons are predictable. Education is still the major priority for most of these families so as the child gets older, the focus naturally shifts towards the traditional pathways of becoming a doctor, lawyer, dentist, accountant etc. But these decisions have a sinister undertone that cannot be ignored.

Here's how it works for a typical boy of a family whose parents hail from India for example. Cricket is in their blood and even Grandma is obsessed with the game. He has some natural talent, is culturally inclined towards a strong practice ethic and shows impressive progress in his early teens. On the downside, it is likely that he is physically smaller than his Anglo Saxon teammates and at this age, it apparently matters to selectors.

Education, the only answer
As he moves into U-15, U-17 and U-19 ranks, those Asian/Australian boys start falling like flies. The education thing is only part of the answer. It is hard to say which comes first - chicken or egg - but it is no coincidence that this is also the point at which there is a massive cultural divergence in the way cricket is played and selected at these elite levels.

The selectors are usually ex-cricketers who have transitioned straight into High Performance roles. Their life experience outside cricket is limited. Very limited. They know nothing else except the monoculture of their own cricketing bubble. Naturally, when they look for emerging talent, they look for mirror images of themselves in technique, size, temperament and dare I say it, cultural homogeneity? It is only to be expected then that any young cricketer not fitting that narrow lens is deemed an outlier. Like Usman Khawaja, they need to shine brighter than their colleagues in order to be noticed. It is not a level playing field.

Performances become utterly irrelevant. In case you think that is an exaggeration, consider a boy who made 0, 2 & 0 and took a single wicket in three days in a recent selection trial and was still an automatic selection, possibly even as captain! All results are now available in an electronic database so on a purely statistical basis, the selectors have nowhere to hide.

But they don't need to hide. They know they are the only card game in town and that if you want to have any chance later down the track, you either shut up or move out. The culture of fear is palpable. No one dares speak out despite selections being so clearly biased that boys who perform upto 600% better over a long period of time are still overlooked. And this is where self-fulfilling prophecies come into play. Those Asian kids who are already predisposed to priortising their studies read the writing on the wall, swallow that bitter pill of disappointment, can hear the echoes of the deeply personal abuse they cop incessantly (not necessarily racist but personal nonetheless) and they walk away from the game at about age 16.

On their way out, they are reminded that they weren't "hard enough" or that they "weren't up for the contest" and that is why they were not selected. Their superior runs or wickets are deemed an irrelevance. Being up for the contest is clearly not reflected in scoring more runs apparently! It's about whether you can play the game with a verbal edge that doesn't come naturally to an Asian kid (with exceptions).

Even the selection process is essentially unfair. Let's use an exam/test analogy: imagine allowing one person to sit the exam in a quiet room with no distractions but asking another person to sit the same exam during rush hour at Churchgate Station in Mumbai and then being marked by the same examiner according to the same criteria

This is what happens at selection carnivals when NDW (an acronym for Next David Warner that is fast gathering popularity) is allowed to play his innings without distractions but NDW (and his cowardly henchmen) abuse the batsman in deeply personal terms in full view of umpires, selectors and spectators when it is their turn to bat? By any measure, how can this be deemed a fair trial? Both parties are not being tested under the same conditions. Not coincidentally, NDW and his henchmen miraculously form the majority of the boys selected!

Minority problem
Culturally, when you are in the minority, it is a deeply unsettling experience to compete against these odds. Not many quiet kids with Asian cultural leanings feel comfortable. Sometimes even the catering doesn't reflect any attempt at sensitivity at these carnivals with no culturally appropriate food provided and cheap jokes being made if anyone expresses their discomfort. Coaches stand by and pretend they heard nothing. Umpires miraculously go deaf.

End result? Self-fulfilling prophecy time - the kids who keep getting selected stay in the system and continue to improve with better coaching, nutrition tips, physical conditioning and the others drift away from the game to pursue other careers whilst they lick the wounds of rejection and abuse. Some of the arguments put forward are so ridiculous they are almost laughable. For some selections, they argue that an incumbent player who made the team last year does not need to score runs to make the team again. For this cricketer, getting out of a team is harder than getting in. Some players are thrown under the bus by being put in impossible situations (eg: spinners asked to bowl with the new ball, middle order batsman being thrust into the opener's role with no warning) and then judged by those performances.

More than just ability
Character over cover drives. Elite honesty. Wonderful throwaway lines. I've got a few new ones to add. Cover-ups over character. Elitist dishonesty. There are a whole generation of NDW's coming through the system and they all look and sound like carbon copies of each other.

Michael Jeh is a Brisbane-based former first-class player

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