12 December 2023
Just winning this summer’s test series against his birth nation Pakistan won’t be enough for Usman Khawaja. Instead, the Australia batter is determined to win well, both on and off the pitch.
“I think winning well is 100 percent as important as anything else,” Khawaja said.
“Winning is obviously extremely important, but how you win is just as important. I mean, I think the Australian cricket team has been through a lot over the last ten years, particularly five years ago. We've probably lost a lot of respect from the Australian public and how we went about our cricket.
“To try to gain that respect back, we had to redefine what we were as an Australian cricket team. The humility we show when we win, the humility we show when we lose are both equally as important.”
Khawaja recently joined Olympians and Paralympians from more than 20 sports for the annual AIS Champs in Chairs, an initiative to connect athlete leaders from across high performance sport to share challenges and learnings.
While Cricket Australia isn’t formally part of Australia’s High Performance 2032+ Sport Strategy, Khawaja used his keynote to share how strongly he resonates with the strategy’s vision, ‘We win well to inspire Australians’.
“If my career and my time with Australian cricket over the last ten years has taught me anything is that people remember the wins you’ve had, but they 100 percent remember how you won.
“They remember what happened in the games, remember the controversial moments. And if you could finish a game with your head held up high and proud of how you played the game and how you won the game, I think that is by far equally as important as winning, if not more important, because actions speak louder than words.”
Khawaja also shared with the athlete cohort how important his wellbeing and life away from sport has been to his sustainable success as a cricketer.
“I haven't met too many people who are struggling off the field that perform on the field. And myself, personally, I've never been able to perform on the field if things outside, off the field, haven't been going too well.
“We're human. And I think that's what we really want to convey to the Australian public and the world public is we love this game. We’re trying to play in the right way and at the end of the day, we're just like you.
“When I stop playing cricket in the future, I'll always be more than just a cricketer. I’m Usman Khawaja the person, Usman Khawaja who's got a wife and two lovely kids at the moment, and a mom and dad and brothers who love me and friends who are really close to me. That's more important than anything else.”
Want to learn more about how our Australian athletes are bringing the values of win well to life. Click here to meet Olympic sailor Olivia Price and how the HP 2032+ Strategy is supporting her push for Paris 2024.