Usman Khawaja refused an interview with Australian sports radio station SEN after the first day’s play of the first Test against West Indies in Barbados, four months after the station sacked the journalist Peter Lalor due to his outspoken support of Palestinians.
Khawaja too has been vocal in protesting the deaths of tens of thousands of Gazan civilians during Israel’s 21-month military assault on the territory, after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages on 7 October 2023. In late 2023 Khawaja clashed with cricket’s international governing body over his wishes to display messages or symbols of peace on his playing equipment during a Test. The ICC ruled that such displays would be “political” despite their vagueness and general applicability.
After years as part of SEN’s cricket commentary team, Lalor’s freelance job was cancelled while on a tour of Sri Lanka in February, during a Test in which Khawaja had made his highest career score of 232. SEN supremo Craig Hutchison claimed Lalor’s practice of posting pro-Palestinian messages on social media was distressing to Jewish Australians. “I have friends who are frightened and have heard the fear in their voices during conversations. It is an awful situation. But so is Gaza,” wrote Lalor in a public response after being dismissed.
The Test team’s opening batter criticised that decision at the time. “Standing up for the people of Gaza is not antisemitic nor does it have anything to do with my Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia, but everything to do with the Israeli government and their deplorable actions,” Khawaja wrote in his own social media post. “It has everything to do with justice and human rights.”
Typically the stumps interview is done by the team’s best performer of the day, meaning that Khawaja had not been nominated during the second Sri Lanka Test or the recent World Test Championship final. SEN is the only Australian live broadcaster in the Caribbean for this series, with ABC radio controversially commentating from screens in home studios to save costs, while Fox Sports uses a locally-produced television feed.
This was the first time that Khawaja had been asked to speak to SEN since the sacking, having scored an important 47 during a poor day for Australia’s batting. After initially approaching broadcasters Bharat Sundaresan and Adam Collins on the field of play at the direction of team media manager Cole Hitchcock, Khawaja then noticed the SEN branding on the microphone, and raised a hand to the commentators before walking away.
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Neither Cricket Australia nor Khawaja offered comment or confirmed the cause of Khawaja’s decision. Lalor, who is present on the tour as an independent journalist after decades at The Australian newspaper, said that “Usman is a man of principle whose support I valued greatly when I was dismissed and whose ongoing support I appreciate”.
