Australia opener Usman Khawaja has revealed that he is lacking motivation to play cricket at the moment. This came ahead of the third Test between Australia and Pakistan to be played in Sydney from January 3 onwards.
Khawaja has been forefront of his support to Hamas-backed Palestine in their war against Israel, which began on October 7. The Australian opener, who has roots in Pakistan, is a devout follower of Islam. He tried to wear shoes with messages supporting Palestine in the first Test in Perth but was stopped by ICC and Cricket Australia.
He was then reprimanded by ICC for wearing a black armband to show his support. When stopped from wearing messages, Khawaja wanted to sport a dove sticker on his bat to show solidarity, but despite support from CA and captain Pat Cummins, he was denied permission by ICC.
Speaking ahead of the final Test match of the series, Khawaja said that he has been lacking motivation since the Sheffield Shield.
"I don’t do these things on a whim – this is something that has affected me for a long time. I was playing Sheffield Shield cricket before the Test series and I was lacking motivation. I talked to my wife Rachel, I talked to our sports psychologist Brent Membrey and Cricket Australia and told them I am struggling for motivation right now," Usman Khawaja explained in an interview with Fox Sports.
Many lives have been lost since Hamas decided to attack Israel in early October. After Hamas' attack, Israel responded with their military force and nearly flattened Gaza - a city in Palestine.
Khawaja said that playing cricket seemed insignificant during the time of war and that he had been struggling with the thought.
"When I see all these people, particularly innocent kids, dying and I see videos of that happening it really affects me. Going out and playing cricket just seemed so insignificant and I’m really struggling with it. It had a big impact on me. I thought long and hard about what I could do and how I could do it without segregating and pushing people aside," Khawaja added.
Khawaja is the first Muslim to play cricket for Australia and has been in decent form against Pakistan in the ongoing series.
