Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday I had the privilege of hosting, with my great mate here, the member for Moreton, a cricket game with players from the Muslim communities in our electorates. The game was played in the spirit of cohesion and respect, and that was the whole point of the day. I am very pleased to be able to inform the House that the Rankin team was victorious, albeit by just one run after 20 overs each, and this victory was despite, rather than because of, the player that is their local member! I did manage to knock over the member for Moreton at one stage, which was very satisfying.

On a more serious note, the game began with a minute's silent tribute to Phil Hughes and we all wore a black armband. We were honoured to be joined by one of the finest batsman in Australia, Usman Khawaja. What a class act Usman is, mingling with the players for some time and signing bats. I want to thank him for showing up and I acknowledge his efforts. I also want to thank all of the players and supporters, including Ahsan Assadi who helped organise the mighty Rankin team; the very patient umpires; Queensland Cricket for donating the gear and being helpful in so many ways; Duncan Pegg and Peter Russo for scoring the game; Runcorn High for the use of the fields; and the member for Moreton for coming up with the idea in the first place, and also for the ill-advised shot selection that allowed me to bowl someone for the first time since probably the late 1990s! It was a great day and hopefully we can try to do it again.

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