Refugee parents Radha and Udaya name their child Ricky Ponting

LITTLE Ricky Ponting was yet to greet the world when he made the treacherous 3000km journey from Sri Lanka to Australia with his parents last year.

LITTLE Ricky Ponting was yet to greet the world when he made the treacherous 3000km journey from Sri Lanka to Australia with his parents last year.

Now the six-month old, named after the famous Australian cricket captain, is living in Glenalta with his mum mother Radha and father Udaya as the family awaits their refugee status being approved by the Federal Government.

The Advertiser has spoken to the family for Refugee Week, which runs until Saturday.

The family's journey began when they left Sri Lanka on a boat bound for Indonesia.

They arrived on Christmas Island from Indonesia with 186 other asylum seekers in October.

Radha was heavily pregnant on the journey, which she described as "very difficult".

She said food and water ran out on the second boat journey two days before reaching Christmas Island.

"I was vomiting and had migraines," Radha told The Advertiser through Rhoda Conway, a Sri Lankan-born member of the Blackwood Circle of Friends.

She said the boat stopped in the middle of sea and "it was frightening".

After short stays on Christmas Island and Inverbrackie in the Adelaide Hills, the family moved to a Red Cross-supported home in Glenalta at the start of the year, a few weeks after Ricky was born at Flinders Medical Centre.

Radha and Udaya fled Sri Lanka because they feared for their lives amid continuing violence, and wanted to raise their child in a safe environment.

The family has been supported by refugee advocacy group the Circle of Friends since.

Ms Conway and other group members help them adjust to life in Australia.

Udaya said the family hoped to be granted refugee status and stay in Adelaide. "We would love to work here and bring up Ricky," he said.

Udaya said he always received a warm welcome when people learned his son's given names were Ricky Ponting.

"I love cricket in Sri Lanka and I watch it here," he said.

Refugee Week is an annual event to raise awareness and celebrate refugees' contributions to society.