\u201cAs I walk off for the last time, I do so with gratitude and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khawaja immigrated to Australia from Islamabad as a child, battling the odds to become the country\u2019s first Pakistan-born national player.<\/p>\n
At one point, he was the only Asian first-class player in Australia and is credited with opening doors for others.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsman has made a huge contribution to Australian cricket both through his outstanding achievements as one of our most stylish and resilient batters since his Test debut 15 years ago, and off field, particularly through the Usman Khawaja Foundation,\u201d said Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of Australian cricket I would like to thank and congratulate Usman for all he has achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khawaja\u2019s foundation helps youths from refugee, immigrant, Indigenous, and poor socioeconomic backgrounds through introductory cricket programs and educational support.<\/p>\n
\u2018Attacked me\u2019<\/p>\n
Khawaja has so far amassed 6206 runs with 16 centuries and 28 half-centuries, averaging 43.39.<\/p>\n
He smashed a career-high 232 against Sri Lanka a year ago, but has not made three figures since.<\/p>\n
The current Ashes series has been a rollercoaster ride, with the veteran batsman coming under scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Australia’s Usman Khawaja announces his retirement from all international cricket during a press conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground today. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
He injured his back in the first test in Perth and was replaced as opener in the second innings by Travis Head, who blasted a match-winning century.<\/p>\n
Khawaja did not feature in the next match at Brisbane and was omitted from the team for the third test in Adelaide, only to get a lifeline when Steve Smith dropped out ill just before the toss.<\/p>\n
He came in at number four and hit 82 and 40 before making 29 and 0 in the fourth test at Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad I get to leave on amy own terms, with a little bit of dignity, and go out at the SCG where I love,\u201d he said, while expressing frustration at how he was treated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I did my back (in Perth), I hurt my back and had back spasms and it was something I couldn\u2019t control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the media and past players came out and attacked me. I could have copped it for a couple of days but it went on for five days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way everyone came out at me about my preparation, \u2018he\u2019s not committed to the team. Only worried about himself.\u00a0Playing a golf competition.\u00a0He\u2019s selfish, he didn\u2019t train hard enough. He\u2019s lazy\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the same racial stereotypes (I thought we had moved past).<\/p>\n
\u201cBut obviously we haven\u2019t fully moved past that. I haven\u2019t seen anyone treated like that in the Australian cricket team before.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nevertheless admitted the writing was on the wall during the current Ashes series.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into Adelaide and then not being picked initially for that game was probably a sign for me to say \u2018all right, it\u2019s time to move on\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Khawaja also played 40 one-dayers and nine Twenty20 internationals.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAs I walk off for the last time, I do so with gratitude and peace.\u201d Khawaja immigrated to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16286,74,9092,694,5272,24812,2046,3019,16558,66405,2837,1634,55893,5904,1888,71,1019,99523,76703,2845,6176,36990,111,139,69,29403,49614,46440,294,3048,213,129085,765,99522,6123,1533],"class_list":["post-215088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-15year","tag-after","tag-against","tag-announces","tag-ashes","tag-australias","tag-career","tag-clash","tag-cricket","tag-cricketer","tag-during","tag-england","tag-fifth","tag-final","tag-first","tag-from","tag-international","tag-khawaja","tag-lashing","tag-leaving","tag-legacy","tag-muslim","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-perceived","tag-racial","tag-retire","tag-retirement","tag-said","tag-sports","tag-stereotyping","tag-test","tag-usman","tag-while","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}