Australia not a racist nation: India-born CA member

MELBOURNE: India-born Cricket Australia official Gorur Harinath has defended his adopted country even as racist attacks on Indian students continue unabated.

Harinath, who is the chairman of Cricket New South Wales and a board member of CA, said he never encountered such problems since coming to Australia in 1971.

"I don't think Australia is a racist country, I have never experienced racism overtly - it doesn't affect me what people say behind my back," said Harinath, who was yesterday awarded an Order of Australia medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

"I came from a very poor family in Hyderabad," he was quoted as saying by the 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

"We had a family of eight in a small house, weren't even used to electricity, and then I came here and suddenly I'm staying in a three-bedroom house by myself," said the medical practitioner.