Usman Khawaja has opened up on why he kept the rheumatoid arthritis that threatened his playing future a secret for his entire Test career. The former Test star releases his autobiography, Sabr, on 10 November, which he said he wrote “for people who do love cricket and for those who don’t”. I go through the ups and downs of cricket and it gets accentuated because everyone gets to see it,” Khawaja said.
One key aspect of Khawaja’s career the public did not know about was the arthritis diagnosis at the age of 22 after the pain in his left knee was so great he couldn’t walk 10m to the bathroom. Only regular injections kept him on his feet and able to play cricket. I took an injection last night,” Khawaja said in Brisbane on Monday.
Even my best friend from high school, Ardil, didn’t know until one year ago.” The reason Khawaja didn’t open up about it? He said he was thankful the people who did know initially at Cricket NSW, Cricket Australia and various medical staff “kept to their ethical code and didn’t say anything”. Khawaja, who made 6,229 Test runs with 16 centuries, did not engage a ghost writer for his book for one simple reason.
People have learned over time that I am pretty open and honest about most things. My goal for my story was to relate to everyone. I found that people talked a lot about the cricket but not a lot about themself a lot of the time.” Khawaja writes about his subcontinent life and then his life as a cricketer in Australia.
He said there were “funny stories” and “great learnings”. Khawaja has proven to be a trailblazer in Australian cricket who opened a door for others to follow. When we start seeing the Test team represented by the multicultural community, that is when you know you have started to make headway.”
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