SUJAY GUPTA in Perth
PERTH (Australia): Sitting in India and following the World Cup, one would have thought that the Antipodes had turned blue. The Adelaide Oval and the MCG games were big fat Indian bashes, an outpouring of emotion and fantasy and India’s wins at both have kept the juggernaut rolling. It has given a sense of purpose to this World Cup, limited to the fact there is just one team playing in the world Cup – who else – and everyone else lines up one by one to get beaten by India, the idea behind the series of mauka ads. In the ad supporters of all the ‘outsider’ teams (the word in deference to the best known term of non endearment back in Goa), wear jerseys of those teams only to exchange them for the next in line to get beaten by India. The bragging rights have clearly been India’s but it remains to be seen how this goes if India loses their first match in the group stage today at Perth versus the Caribbeans.
There’s little doubt, from the time, Herald landed in Australia, in the Queensland capital of Brisbane and then swung across the continent to Perth, that the biggest news stories is the heat, with a heat wave making Brisbane touch 38 degrees Celsius and the start of the Rugby League, which has the emotional connect that a back to back ODI series with Pakistan would have in India. And life in Brisbane and Sydney, both venues for World Cup matches with Sydney holding one of the semi-finals will revolve not so much around that but the “State of the Origin, Rugby League clashes between Queensland and New South Wales of which Sydney is the capital. This historic derby is fast, furious and violent. There’s no charm or politeness among rival teams, fans or commentators. It’s war.
At the Brisbane airport on Wednesday, the beefy immigration officer with a moustache bigger than Merv Huges (the Aussie fast bowler), looked curiously at this reporter, when he was asked, “So, I guess India is winning the cup?” Mr Beefy replied, “Does India play rugby mate? Since when?” Oops, reality really bites.
At the time when no Indian TV network can begin their Prime Time without a story on India and the World Cup, the Ten network led with the impending execution of two Australians, in Indonesia, convicted of leading the Bali Nine drug smuggling ring. The sports section led with the start of the Rugby League game between Bronchos and Rabbitohs and the drug case against Karmichael Hunt, one of Australia’s biggest rugby stars and a small story on Shane Warne. The Cricket World Cup? Which one are we talking about?
So is the World Cup, a big part of the reason why this writer is here, completely an Asian phenomenon? Tanay Albuquerque, a 21-year-old, Goan origin young man, from Brisbane who is “mad about cricket”, seems to think so.
All around the stadiums in the World Cup, you just get to see Indian ads, which makes it clear that the TV audience is back there. For the record a staggering 2.9 billion people, or about 40 per cent of the world’s population watched the India-Pakistan game. But that was mainly outside Australia.
Of course, the ICC and the local hosts have done a splendid job to put this World Cup together, going to the extent of claiming, “The tournament is going to be the biggest event in Australia since the Sydney Olympics and will be the biggest event in world sport in 2015.”
For India, all that matters, is that last game on March 29, which India needs to play versus the last ‘outsider’ team standing and to make the ‘outsider fans’ take off yet another team jersey to the sounds of mauka- meaning opportunity, and lift the World Cup.
All else that has been said in this story, will be crushed, rejected and thrown into a very isolated bin, with a clear message, ‘Go back to your rugby and Australian football. We are the Champions’.
Well till then, there’s lot and lots of work to do. And by the way Australia is also playing in this World Cup.
