How to be an Aussie Bison

Amongst the cut and thrust and fallout from the second Ashes cricket Test, English supporters continue to taunt visiting Australians about arriving on British shores having recently departed a penal colony.

I wonder what Usman Khawaja, the Pakistani-born Australian opening batsman of Muslim faith thought of the faux ridicule.

Taunting Australians about being from a penal colony is bizarre because it lacks logic and is far from truth-telling about the British's thirst to colonise often defenceless peoples and their lands.

After all, it was the colonising English who arrived on the shores of the great southern continent, claimed Terra Nullius (nobody's land), raised the Union Jack, and terrorised, enslaved, and murdered the locals.

And now they have the gall to taunt us about a convict past that was as a direct result of their unrepentant determination to violently conquer the world.

Port Arthur Historic Site is listed as World Heritage, attracts thousands of locals and tourists alike each year, and forms a key part of a narrative that is now widely celebrated.

Let's be facetiously honest - the English are better than us; better educated, wiser, and far more debonaire.

That said, there's a particular form of arrogance reserved for the hoity-toity that grates like a nail file.

And, in saying that, I'm all but British aside from being born here...

Nonetheless, we should pause to consider where this arrogance is showcased best - Lords and its famous Long Room.

The Long Room is a dining space where members can entertain guests and attend cricket matches such as the Ashes, enjoying incredibly close contact with players who must make their way through the throng before heading upstairs to their respective dressing rooms.

The Long Room, situated on the ground floor of the Lords Pavilion, was built in 1890.

The late Shane Warne is one of the very few overseas cricketers whose portrait adorns the walls.

Yet while I would much prefer to watch cricket in the Caribbean sipping a rum on ice with lime rather than at Lords where Pimm's reigns supreme, we should acknowledge the history of the ground/s which has become known as the home of cricket.

Three cricket grounds were built and opened between 1787 and 1814, named after Thomas Lord, and remain owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

And although the laws of cricket originated before this time, the gentlemen who drew them up became the foundation members of the famous club.

So, it was somewhat ironic that with much anger, passion, and an extraordinary level of hypocrisy the laws and spirit of the game would be questioned at the home of cricket following the long-range stumping of Englishman Jonny Bairstow by Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey during the second Test.

But what caught my attention was the remarkable consequence of this episode - an outpouring of support for Australian opener, Usman Khawaja.

As a nation, it's fair to say that we don't have the best reputation when it comes to interactions with so-called minorities.

It certainly hasn't been easy for the Muslim Australians who have not only faced the wrath of uneducated communities, but they have also faced the wrath of uneducated right of centre politicians such as Pauline Hanson who have made a career out of division, hatred, fearmongering, and mistruths aimed at mobililisng voters.

But, to a person, Australians leapt to the spirited defence of Usman Khawaja.

Was it because he is a mild-mannered Australian cricketer who was abused by the English toffees of the Long Room?

Or was it because Usman stood up for his mates and personified a much-admired Australian trait.

Whatever the reason, in my view, it was noteworthy and heartwarming.

Usman Khawaja offered, "Lord's is one of my favourite places to come".

"There's always respect shown at Lord's, particularly in the members' pavilion in the Long Room, but there wasn't today.

"Some of the stuff that was coming out of the members' mouths is really disappointing and I wasn't just going to stand by and cop it.

"So, I just talked to a few of them."

And in a defining moment, the concerns about a somewhat misunderstood faith evaporated.

In fact, the major concern from the parochial penal settlement supporters was that Usman Khawaja may have been racially abused and that's why he reacted.

We, "For those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share," join with the First Nations peoples to form a unique and magnificent albeit extremely complex nation.

No longer was the colour of Usman Khawaja's skin, his birthplace, or his faith of any defining consequence.

He had been wronged by the arrogant English aristocracy and he had stood up for his mates, and we backed him to the hilt.

What a cricketer, what a batsman, what an Aussie!

During the 1940s Winston Churchill offered, "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

If the reaction to this incident is a better understanding of our fellow Australians at the expense of relationships with the arrogant colonisers, then, that's a win!