UZZY IN CRUISY SPACE

Opener plots future

USMAN Khawaja’s career revival is a victory for the man who decided to put his cricket in one kit bag and his life in another.

It is the same theory that turned Ash Barty from a good player to a triple grand slam winner.

Do not chain your selfesteem as a person to the sport you play. Do not let your head go up and down with your batting average or your world ranking.

Khawaja reckoned he worked it out late after his selfesteem yo-yoed with his performances.

“It got to a point where even when I was scoring runs I wasn’t happy, so I knew I just had to change and let it go,’’ he said.

His 2020 – when he scored 1080 runs at 67 – and Thursday’s century, only happened after he decided he could not let cricket dominate his life.

Khawaja these days is one of the most chilled sportsmen in the game.

When a contact apologised for ringing him the day before the first Test against South Africa in Brisbane he said, “that’s no problem ... whether it’s a Test match or a club game I don’t feel differently”.

When friends told him after his twin tons against England at the SCG last summer they did not contact him before prematch so as not to disturb him, he replied: “Why? It’s only a game of cricket.’’

Khawaja is uncertain of his future in the game.

In March he is likely to be offered a $1m contract with Cricket Australia and will probably sign it.

What is certain is he is the sort of character cricket needs to keep involved for he deeply understands the cultural challenges faced by Asian immigrants, of which he is one.

For all the Asian immigrants playing at junior level they have an all but invisible presence in the halls of power.

Khawaja, who is studying his MBA, can change this.

A commentary career is also on the cards and he has a You Tube channel where he films himself then edits the contents for publication.

For all of his nonchalance, hard work has also been the bedrock of his recovery.

One reason he struggled to cement a Test place for a lot of his career was because he was regarded as a poor play in Asia and particularly against spin.

So he rebuilt himself. The first moves in his revival were awkward. When he first experimented with the reverse sweep, balls flew everywhere and he had to be prepared to look momentarily foolish.

But he kept at it until the point where the strike feels as orthodox an option as the cover drive in his repertoire.

He grew up near the SCG and used to pop in after tea when the gates opened, dreaming about the day when the ground would be his personal theatre as it was on Thursday.