Cricket has always been Australia’s summer soundtrack, but the tune is changing. A new report from the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute suggests that the next verse might be written in Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, and Nepali accents—with bat and ball.
Titled It’s not just cricket: sport, social cohesion and belonging, the report unpacks how South Asian-Australian communities are shifting the centre of gravity in a sport that once saw them as spectators rather than players. From suburban ovals to regional clubs, South Asian names now fill scorecards, coaching rosters and fixture lists, signalling not just participation, but reinvention.
Vanessa Murray, the author, charts the journey of grassroots clubs like the Punjab Lions in Adelaide, the Canberra Nepalese Cricket Club, and Brisbane Super Kings. These aren’t just feel-good community teams—they’re punching above their weight, both in trophies and the tough terrain of integration.
Their successes, however, don’t come without pushback. The report lays bare the persistence of inequities that don’t show up on scoreboards: unequal access to grounds, minimal representation in higher tiers, and a feeling among some players that they’re constantly playing on a cultural sticky wicket. One club founder confessed, off-record, that negotiating a pitch booking with council often felt harder than facing a bouncer without a helmet.
For women, the challenges are layered further. Insights from Molina Asthana, who founded Multicultural Women in Sport, and commentator Rana Hussain point to cultural barriers, family expectations and unconscious bias. The term ‘boys’ club’ comes up more than once. But these women aren’t asking for favours—they’re demanding room at the crease.
The numbers back the story. One in five registered players with Cricket Australia now come from South Asian backgrounds. India-born Australians alone make up almost 10% of the country’s overseas-born population. Yet, walk into any elite training centre or Cricket Australia boardroom and the diversity shrinks.
The report takes aim at this disconnect. It outlines eight recommendations that are less about tinkering and more about restructuring: teaching new migrants how to navigate cricket’s often cliquey administrative maze, including more multicultural voices in leadership, valuing the unpaid labour of volunteers, and making sure facilities don’t end up monopolised by the same old clubs with historical advantage. One suggestion calls for reimagining cricket through co-design—inviting migrant communities to actually help shape the future of the game, rather than being passive beneficiaries of outreach campaigns.
Vanessa Murray puts it plainly: “This is not just about the game. It’s about fairness, visibility, and recognising the contribution of Australia’s increasingly diverse communities to sport.”
That contribution isn’t hypothetical. Clubs like Brisbane Super Kings are not just participating in competitions—they’re dominating them. Club president Sathish Rajendran features in a webinar accompanying the report launch, talking about the strategies, sacrifices and silent battles behind the team’s rise. What he doesn’t say, but what the report implies, is that without systemic change, stories like his will remain the exception, not the norm.
It’s not all critique. The report notes Cricket Australia’s Multicultural Action Plan, a 10-year attempt to embed diversity across the board—from fans to frontline staff, from school kids to selectors. But for a sport that prides itself on fairness and a gentleman’s code, the question remains: is change happening fast enough, or is it all caught in the slips?
The report is less a celebration than a challenge. Cricket may be a national obsession, but who gets to obsess over it—and be recognised for their role in shaping it—is still uneven. And unless the recommendations move beyond the PowerPoint circuit into clubrooms and council halls, the scoreboard may show progress, but the match will feel rigged.
As more Australians cheer for India when they’re not playing Australia, or argue over Virat Kohli’s form as passionately as they do about Smith’s cover drive, cricket’s cultural ownership is clearly shifting. But until South Asian-Australians see themselves not just on the field but in the decision-making rooms, the phrase “it’s not just cricket” will remain aspiration rather than reality.
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🏏 New report reveals South Asian-Australians transforming grassroots #cricket, yet face systemic barriers. 📊 1 in 5 players now from South Asian backgrounds, but leadership & facilities lag. ⚖️ Calls for inclusive reforms in the sport. #TheIndianSunhttps://t.co/1wdEHCfZJq
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