On eve of 1st Test, Australia warms up to India: Fan parks with Indian food, Hindi commentary on phone App, community outreach

India vs Australia: “HOW IS your kid doing,” India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah asks his Aussie counterpart Pat Cummins. They are a few feet and a couple of minutes away from the unveiling of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that they will be fighting for over five Test matches from Friday at Perth. Cummins is all smiles, and asks the same question to Bumrah, who launches into a long excited reply about his one-year-old son Angad.

Light bulbs are flashing around them as photographers and broadcasters are busy capturing visuals for their pre-series packages. Oblivious, Cummins says, “that moment when the kid first walks”, and both — the ODI World Cup winning captain and world’s best fast bowler — go “awww”.

The media representative yanks them to the here and now and reminds them about why they are. Photos are taken with the trophy, and once again the two shuffle to the side to resume some more paternal chat.

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It is hard to believe the two teams with the fiercest rivalry in world cricket are about to start their freshest battle in a day’s time. But then it’s also scarcely believable that the Australian cricketing establishment, the media, and even the government has been almost going “awww” about this India-Australia Test series.

Usually, the Australian media acts as their team’s 12th man. They are known to give a snarly treatment to the visitors. Once England’s Kevin Pietersen was famously welcomed by a huge headline across the local newspapers that read “The Ego has landed”. In contrast, the Indian team has almost been feverishly giddily welcomed.

Newscorp, an Australian news agency with a vast imprint across newspapers, took out full-page cricket features, splashing images of the likes of Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal with headlines that ran in Punjabi and Hindi. Almost advertorial in the content, newspapers have run glowing pieces about Indian players.

Diverse Australia is making an effort to be inclusive. It hasn’t escaped the local population with roots in the subcontinent. Jafri, a cabbie of Pakistan origin, says, “Yeh toh hona hi tha (This was bound to happen). India has all the money in cricket bhai. Finally, our side of the world is being recognised and respected. Hopefully soon, they will call my name also properly: Arabic ka Jafri, not English Geoffrey!”

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Money does matter, of course. Australian cricket, which was struggling during the pandemic and had to even show the doors to the then CEO Kevin Edwards, is expecting a jackpot from this India series.

Back then, in 2020, it was reported that Cricket Australia (CA), the body that runs cricket, had to take a loan of A$300 million from Commonwealth Bank. The Indian series in 2021, though shrouded in the pandemic, helped the Australian board. And in October this year, they announced a deficit of A$31.9 million ($21.34m). CA insiders say that television rights money from this India series would bankroll their cricket for the next couple of years.

The bonhomie ahead of the series was started during Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to India where he had his much-publicised chariot tour around the stadium at Ahmedabad just before toss during a Test match in March 2023.

“I would say the entire process started there with the involvement of the governments,” says Ibrahim Badees, a public-relations executive with CA, who handles their reach out to diverse populace in the country. From then the wings of the government and CA have been working together.

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A planned series of promotions in and around the Test venues are being planned. “There will be fan-parks across the first three Tests in Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane. It has been done before now and then, but not at this scale. There will be a big cultural event with Bollywood music, dance performances, and specially curated Indian food for the audience,” says Badees.

“The cities will come alive, and we have reached out to the Indian communities and Asian population. The theme that started with the promotions across media will now be taken forward at ground level. Maybe even some Bollywood stars might show up at some stage!”

One of the TV promotions, for Fox Cricket, has been singing the praises of Indian players, with former Australian opener Justin Langer giving the voiceover. The visuals start with the infamous 1981 archival footage of a livid Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar nudging his opening partner Chetan Chauhan to walk off the field with him after he was given out lbw to Dennis Lillee.

“It all started here,” coos Langer about how Indian players shrugged off their diffidence. The promo captures India’s ascent through the years, including the impressive wins in the last two series in Australia. It is Australia’s Fox Sports, it could well have been an Indian broadcaster — such is the tone and feel of the teaser.

The Indo-Aussie cricket face-offs have come a long way. In the lead-up to the 2024 tour, social media has gone in a retro mode. One such viral clip is Channel 9’s introductory promo about the Indian team of the 70’s. It mentions Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Gundappa Vishwanath and Dilip Vengsarkar and then comes the clincher — “And the rest of the names we can’t pronounce yet”. India’s journey in an insular cricketing country like Australia to becoming the heart-beat of the game has been remarkable to say the least.

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Channel Seven, one of the main broadcasters of the series, will be borrowing the Hindi commentary feed from Star Sports and beam it even inside Australia via their phone app. The NRIs in Australia, too, will get the chance to feel at home while enjoying cricket abroad.

Rachel Khawaja, the wife of Usman Khawaja, Australia’s opening batsman with a family origin that harks back to Pakistan, has also been roped in by Channel Seven to “connect people with people closest to the players — their families”.

Clearly, CA is wary about slipping back to the dark days of the pandemic when reportedly 80 per cent of their staff were cut down, and they almost faced bankruptcy. The then CEO Edwards had said then that CA had lost $20 million and were at the risk of “losing hundreds of millions” if India didn’t tour during the pandemic.

It’s at times forgotten that CA is a not-for-profit organisation, receiving taxpayer funds, that administers the game on behalf of the Australian people, and the shareholders have been asking them tough questions.

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Ironically, regardless of the result of the series, it is their arch-rivals India who will be bailing them out.

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