Cricket – a White man’s game in Australia ?

Disclaimer: This post is inspired by a CNN-IBN story by Paarul on how cricket may perhaps hold the key to race relations in Australia.

While there is a larger acknowledgment on the part of cricket historians, particularly in Australia, about indigenous cricketers and certainly cricketers from other races (be it Asians or others) not being able to represent the Aussies in international cricket consistently, there is also a candid admission there – the very system that is responsible to spread the game in Australia and take it to the masses, has consistently ignored communities such as the Aborigines and even the migrant community. The lack of integration when it comes to cricket can instantly be noticed when we see the lack of players from other communities having represented Australia, so much so that it is the only Test playing country, which hasn’t been represented by an Asian thus far (someone closest who fits into this would be Dav Whatmore – born in Sri Lanka and played Test cricket for Australia).

Australia is perhaps a different case altogether. It’s first cricket team, that toured England in 1868 was not one filled with Whites, but a squad of indigenous cricketers which included players with names like Unarrimin, Bullchanach etc. Not quite Aussie-sounding names these days, considering the Watsons, the Clarkes, the Fergusons of the world. I bumped into two sociologists from the CAIS (Center for Australian Indigenous Studies) at Melbourne’s Monash University, Barry Judd and Chris Hallinan during the ICC History Conference at Oxford University earlier this year, and their presentation on race relations in Australian cricket, especially related to indigenous communities was an eye-opener. Their arguments were largely based on observations, about how that community was completely ignored by the Australian Cricket Board, now Cricket Australia, highlighting that the Board had virtually stopped spreading the game to the areas where the indigenous community in Australia lived. Yet, this year, there was a historic tour by a set of indigenous cricketers led by South Australian first-class cricketer Dan Christian, from Australia during the Ashes to commemorate their first tour 140 years ago, which was indeed well received in the UK.

Apart from this, to ensure integration, there is the Imparja Cup (a tournament which was introduced in as late as 1994) to spread the game to the Aborigines. Unfortunately, the coverage of the Imparja Cup is so little and negligible, that even the most talented indigenous cricketers would find it difficult to get noticed. Cricket as a game, has a historical narrative in Australia too. The colonizers i.e. the whites saw this as a perfect tool to impose themselves over the indigenous communities, and thereby overpower them – by denying them opportunities to play the very game. And yes, cricket is the only game where this phenomenon exists. The Rugby team has a set of indigenous players who represent their country as it is in the case of Maoris in New Zealand (but then they’ve played cricket too. Daryl Tuffey, Ross Taylor among the first names that come to mind.)

During a casual conversation with Barry Judd, I asked him a question, “How can you say the indigenous communities have never been given a chance to play for the Aussies, when Jason Gillespie publicly said he was one ?” His answer was rather simple and straightforward, “Gillespie acknowledged his roots only when he was successful. Never did he go public about his Aborigine’s origin, before he played cricket for Australia. It would have been a different scenario had he done that before getting selected for Australia.” Judd, during the presentation came out with a candid confession, of how the indigenous community in Australia were not Australian supporters, but massive West Indies fans. According to him, they’d support the West Indies because they identified with them, not just racially, but the way they played their cricket. He said, “Every time the West Indies beat Australia, we’d be happy. We’d see it as our victory, not theirs. Unfortunately, we maybe the only set of cricket fans to support another team against our own.” Fascinating revelations, that. And quite simply, Australia needs to do more on this front, encourage young indigenous kids from let’s say Northern Territory and play the game.

Now, about Asians and Australian cricket. This is an interesting phenomenon in the very first place. Let’s document this first – there are not many Asian-Australian cricketers who firstly, play cricket in Australia. With the exception of young Pakistani-Australian Usman Khawaja, Tamil-Australian Ahilen Rajakumaran Beadle and a young guy by the name of Kumar Sarna (originally from Delhi), not many other names spring to mind. Sarna’s case is interesting because he hails from Melbourne (the very scene of these racial attacks on Indian students) and has represented Australia in the Under-19 World Cup in 2008. At one point of time, Sarna was one of the most talented rookies to emerge in the scene, so much so that the Victorian Bushrangers gave him a Rookie Contract. Not satisfied with his performances, Sarna returned home last year, looking for better opportunities in his home town of New Delhi. Without suggesting much, there could be other factors involved in his decision to return home. Ahilen Beadle, represented Australia in the 2004 U-19 World Cup and hails from Sri Lanka – but not much has been known about his progress thereafter. The only promising and prominent name that stands apart from this group with sub-continental roots is Usman Khawaja – an Islamabad born Australian cricketer, who dreams of wearing the Baggy Green one-day. And he might soon too, given his progress as a New South Wales batsman. His record seems pretty neat for a rookie in first-class cricket, scoring 651 runs @ 40.68 from 11 matches, with a top score of 172* (Courtesy: Cricinfo). If Khawaja comes through the ranks and makes it to the national setup, it could give a fillip to not just the bunch of Asian-Australian community in the country, but also let young cricketers from that community go and pick up the bat/ball.

What Australian cricket needs is a policy, where the game goes beyond the race of an individual. Yes, in most cases, it might have turned out to be a critical factor in a player making the grade or not, but the policy in a way must make sure that race doesn’t end up as being the barrier, or indeed the criteria in picking the best. Other nations have stood up, and its time for Australia to do so, before time starts running out. Cricket, through it’s very nature of the game, has been known to do what most sports can’t – bring people together and integrate – as it did in South Africa with much success. Who knows, the next Adam Gilchrist might just be hiding somewhere in Dandenong.