Usman Khawaja reveals Australian cricket team was divided on unprecedented documentary
Usman Khawaja has revealed he was one of the voices pushing to give unprecedented access to the Australian cricket team’s inner sanctum through a new documentary.
The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team premieres tonight, giving fans never-before-seen insight into the Aussie dressing room in the wake of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal.
Filmmakers followed every move of the Australian players and staff for 16 months, shooting 2300 hours of footage before condensing into an eight-part series for Amazon Prime.
Test star Usman Khawaja joined Deborah Knight ahead of the premiere, revealing players were split on whether to allow the documentary.
“At the start, we were very mindful of it. The Australian change room throughout the years, it’s been very closed off. No one’s really been allowed in.
“I remember the first conversation we had at Alan Border Field… just talking about it there was pushback even then. I remember I spoke up and said, ‘it’s one thing we haven’t done for a long time, it’s one thing I think the fans would love to see’.
“There always was an inner sanctum sort of thing, unless you were in the Australian dressing room you couldn’t ever see what happened. I always felt it was a bit weird but that’s what the norm was and that’s what everyone expected.”
Khawaja opened up on the Aussie cricketers, revealing a strange quirk following a question from Deb’s 11-year-old son, Darcy.
“Cricketers all have the same dream. Every cricketer has the same bloody dream. It’s so bizarre, it’s so weird!”
Click PLAY below to hear the full interview
The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team is available to watch on Amazon Prime from March 12