It all happened in an instant – the cut shot came to my left, and somewhat anticipating it, I dove to my left, got there, and spilt it.

Aside from the physical pain of dropping a catch, the thing that irks you is the feeling of letting your team down. Chance made, chance dropped, and I was the culprit.

There have been a few misdemeanours in my time on the cricket field, but this one struck out to me especially when I began thinking about the whole saga involving Adam Goodes.

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I duly expected the sledges to occur following my butter finger moment. Never I did expect a teammate, who I considered a friend to blurt out that “if [I] ate [my] Weetbix instead of [my] curry, [I] would have caught it”. Simply interpret that quote in the second person to know what was said.

Goodes, unlike myself, is actually a capable athlete. Unlike me, he is an Australian of the Year. I feel dirty for even daring compare my sheer ordinariness to someone who has inspired thousands by both his sporting deeds and his ambassadorial work for Indigenous Australians.

Yet the only similarity I, along with many Australians can claim with Goodes is that we have faced the wind chill of racism in this country, and then be made to feel that by stating the problem, we are also the cause of it.

I feel a certain sympathy for those who don’t understand – how can they possibly understand that which they do not know? While they don’t understand, it’s preferable if they didn’t exacerbate the problem by flatly denying its existence. Statements like “playing the victim”, “take a joke” are designed to simply do that.

While racism is no longer as savage a part of my life as it once was, it’s been brought into sharp focus through the experience of Goodes – for doing little more than showing a component of his Indigenous character, and having the gall to be publicly proud of it.

Waleed Aly said it best when describing Australia as a tolerant nation, until those within minorities decide not to act as a “mere supplicant” to its wider culture. It’s an issue previously in the news when Fawad Ahmed decided not to wear an alcohol logo on his cricket shirt, and now Goodes through his public demonstration of his Indigenous heritage.



Since moving to Australia at age four, it’s been my reality knowing that I will likely remain a minority in this country, through racial and religious lines. Yet if those who hold the cards should decide the fate of the minority, we should forever be submissive in their right to suppress any ideology that conflicts with their notion of “Australia”.

Adam Goodes has known his place throughout his life, and has now spoken up. The petulant booing cannot be a deterrant to what Goodes is attempting to achieve.

Tolerance is no longer enough, acceptance and only acceptance will do.