Sepia Mutiny
A couple of days ago I got a note from my friend Rob. This is what he had written:
Some utterly trivial–and therefore telling–information. Australia is now the only major cricket team not to boast a player with South Asian roots.
Here’s the line up (beyond the obvious 4 SAsian sides):
WI (Sarwan, Chanderpaul)
SA (Amla)
England (Mahmood, Panesar)
Zimbabwe (Ebrahim)
Kenya (Suji, Aga)
New Zealand (Patel)I have no idea whether somewhere in the suburbs of Walla Walla there’s a SAsian-Australian star in the making. It would be cause for celebration.
Australia has had a spotty record of getting S Asian cricketers in their team. Also, relatively few aboriginal players to have made it. One Chinese Australian, called Martin Chee Kwee, I think, played in the Sheffield Shield in the 1990s. The first S Asian Australian to play for Australia will most likely be a Sri Lankan, I’d think. Incidentally, the Australian women’s team has a half-desi cricketer; I forget her first name, but her surname is Sthalekar, a Maharashtrian.
Comment by Salil — May 31, 2006 @ 3:17 am
It would be nice if there was a desi-Aussie star in the making out there somewhere.
Leaving aside the politics of Australian cricket, I think one reason for this is that South Asians are still a small migrant group in Australia. East Asians are more prevalent, constituting 4% of the population. South Asians are half of that. However, these numbers are increasing and our current major donor groups are India and China. It’s still pretty pathetic though that there are few non-Anglo Celtic players in the team.
Comment by flygirl — May 31, 2006 @ 10:17 pm
I’ve heard that the paceman Stuart Clark is of South Asian origin. Is that right?
Comment by Rahul — June 1, 2006 @ 4:32 pm
i’ve never heard that one Rahul, but Michael Bevan and Brendan Julian were both supposedly of Sri Lankan Burgher descent.
Comment by flygirl — June 1, 2006 @ 8:19 pm