Very few people know that Australian cricketer, Usman Khawaja is also a qualified pilot. He has also got his degree and license to fly airplanes. So, Australia’s Test no.3 has his plans sorted after retirement from cricket. Khawaja learned this art at the University of New South Wales – School of Aviation. And, he flew Airbus A380 – the world’s largest passenger aircraft – recently, to showcase that he might have turned into a professional cricketer but he has not forgotten how to fly airplanes.
Take a look at the video released by Cricket.com.au:
Watch as qualified pilot Usman Khawaja puts his flying skills to the test, taking control of the largest passenger aircraft in the world!@Uz_Khawaja | @Qantas pic.twitter.com/gg8MerqebM
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 20, 2019
“I travelled a lot as a kid. My dad worked in Saudi Arabia for about 5-6 years, so I use to travel back and forth to see them and then come back here to play cricket. I just grew a fascination with planes. As I was coming towards the end, year 11-12, I thought ‘what about flying’. I found UNSW (University of New South Wales – School of Aviation), which offered both a degree to make my mother happy and get my licence to get my wings,” Usman Khawaja told cricket.com.au.
“I think flying helped me a lot in terms of cricket. Probably the biggest way was discipline and keeping up with the learning, making sure you are on top of any changes that has happened. There are a lot of things that go hand in hand between flying and especially playing Test cricket. The discipline part of flying and discipline of being a sportsman, especially being a cricketer and being a batsman, I think there are a lot of similarities,” added the Australian cricketer.