that I achieved and these are systemic changes that happened,” he adds, “I think that’s a win on its own.” Increasing representation Kumar’s account of the Official Tall boys for short kings shirt Furthermore, I will do this racial abuse he says received at the SCG two years ago is not an anomaly in Australian cricket. Khawaja, a top-order batter and Australia’s first and only Muslim test cricket player, recently told the Sydney Morning Herald that he was called a curry muncher “all the time” growing up, adding that, due to his Pakistani heritage, he struggled to relate to Australia’s cricket team until he was 13 or 14 years old. Khawaja salutes the crowd during the Big Bash League match between the Sydney Thunder and the Brisbane Heat last month. Jeremy Ng/Getty Images “You see cricketers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, everywhere at a young level [in Australia],” Khawaja told SMH. “But as you get up at a high-performance level, it just drops exponentially. It just drops, drops, drops. That’s where I’m trying to work with Cricket Australia, saying: ‘Look, guys … you invest a lot of money into this, but something’s not going right. You’ve been doing it for 10 years and nothing’s changed.’” The problem, Khawaja says, is that cricket administrators, selectors, and coaches are largely White – even though CA has developed a series of “inclusion solutions” to create new opportunities and ensure diverse representation at clubs across the country. As for Kumar, he calls Khawaja an “inspirational” figure for South Asian born Australian residents like himself. “He has no idea how much he is actually helping the next generation in terms of making them believe it is possible to wear that baggy green,” he says, referring to the iconic green cap worn by Australia’s test cricketers. Kumar hasn’t been to a test match in Australia since the fifth day of the match between Australia and India at the SCG two years ago. He did, however, attend last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, which was organized and overseen by the International Cricket Council, the sport’s global governing body. His two sons were mascots during the tournament, and it was partly for them, Kumar says, that he chose to pursue his complaints with CA and Venues NSW. “As a parent, you need to walk the talk,” he adds. “For me, it’s essential that they should have a better experience when they’re growing up and that they shouldn’t be trying harder because of the color of their skin.”
Gary McKee (right) completed a 365-day streak of marathon running in 2022. Carlos Reina/Platinum Live — It’s little wonder Gary McKee has been nicknamed “marathon man.” He ran one every day last year. Were McKee to go through the Official Tall boys for short kings shirt Furthermore, I will do this process of getting his superhuman feat of endurance and perseverance ratified, it would comfortably be a Guinness World Record. That currently stands at 106 days of consecutive marathon running for women and 62 for men. But well before he embarked on the challenge, completing the first of his 365 marathons on January 1 last year, McKee was never interested in getting his name in the record books. “I’ve always said records are for DJs and I’m not a DJ,” he quips. Instead, the 53-year-old sought to raise money for two charities – one offering support for cancer patients and their families and another providing end of life care. He’s raised close to $1.5 million so far, surpassing his initial target of £1,000,000 ($1.24 million). “I don’t need to have a record, it isn’t what I’ve done it for,” McKee tells Sport. “To do that, it would have meant that the challenge was about me, and it wasn’t about me. It was about me helping other people. It was nothing for personal gain.” No personal gain perhaps, but for those in McKee’s hometown of Cleator Moor in the northwest of England, the Three Six Five Challenge helped to energize
