Over the last 15 years, since I first attended a day of Test match cricket, I’ve honed and perfected my own pre-match ritual.
While items such as sunscreen, water and Aerogard (not to mention the tickets themselves) are always mandatory, one particular item carries extra weight on a once-in-four-year cycle.
That is my beloved gold ODI shirt. Never mind Cricket Australia’s attempts to sway me to their home green strip, I’ve grown up watching my favourite cricketers play pyjama cricket in the canary yellow (or is it Australian gold?), and that has become synonymous with any visit to the SCG.
But once every four years, the shirt becomes even more meaningful, as some will inevitably construe it as the ultimate betrayal.
While myself and others don proudly the yellow and the green, several thousands of others, many of whom are my friends, will be in the opposite corner as they immerse themselves in everything blue.
Such is the hazard for Indian-borns like myself – confronting my identity.
That will be evident tomorrow especially, as memories will go back the last time Australia and India clashed at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Fair for me to say that it remains the only time I became truly ashamed of the team I’ve loved and supported since I was a boy. Without going over the details and the various displays of petulance from both sides, this was the time I confronted what it meant to choose sides.
To some of my Indian brothers and sisters, wearing that Australian shirt was a sign of advocating unsportsmanlike conduct and cheating.
Even four years on, the gasps of horror whenever a new Indian friend discovers I support the enemy still resonate.
In plain English, no matter how much they call Australia home, an Indian Australian will still chant “Jai Hind” the moment the boys from the subcontinent come calling on our shores.
When that team comprises of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman, the adulation reaches a fever-pitch, and the resulting anger at my ‘defection’ becomes even more telling.
“How can you support a team trying to stop Tendulkar scoring his hundredth 100?” they ask in a desperate tone aimed at getting me to realise the error of my ways.
Those errors include continuing my support for a team that has plummeted in fortunes since that unfortunate episode four years ago, and not celebrating among other Indians when their team won the World Cup last March.
Telling them that I have been raised in Australia doesn’t work either. Most of them have. Most of them accept their good fortune in being raised in this wonderful country.
But come cricket time, allegiances change. The fact mine didn’t, still irks them, and that’s what I’m gearing for: hordes of people swathed in blue, barking out words from the mildly humorous to the deliberately insulting.
And I’m prepared to cop them in the hope I have the last laugh.
As for the reason I became a ‘traitor’ and support Australia? I don’t know how that one worked out honestly.
But never has the joy of seeing my Australian brothers defeat my Indian ones ever sated.
Let’s hope for a repeat starting today.
dasilva
Guest
Great story and I agree with everything you have written there I'm quite sure if you trace the bloodlines of most caucasion australian. You can trace that back to England but I doubt most of those people would support England. If people want to support the country of their heritage than that's fine even if I do disagree with it but when people start thinking that supporting country of birth as something traitorous then I think that's a disgrace. In the end Australia is a multicultural country and this country represent Australian with all races and background. That's why I support Australia despite my parents being born from another country. In any case this is a problem in other countries as well. I think one of the most disgraceful thing was when Sajid Mahmood was abuse by Pakistan ethnic community and being called a traitor for representing England. This ignores that Sajid Mahmood was born and raised in England and also that he wouldn't be able to play for Pakistan even if he wanted to as (ICC banned representing the country of your parent's birth after the 1996 world cup due to the UAE team). To play for another country you have to live there for 5 years. How many of those Pakistan fans are willing to show their passion for their country and live outside their comfortable lives in England and live in Pakistan for 5 years to represent that country. They were bunch of hypocrites. I hope that when the day an Australian with indian descent plays for Australia that he doesn't get the same amount of abuse as Sajid Mahmood did for England. That would be a dark day for Australia if that occurs.
Vas Venkatramani
Guest
Thanks Mark. From my perspective, I find the notion of supporting the country of your birth/heritage an interesting one. If I was born and spent some good years in India before moving here, then I completely would be comfortable supporting India. On that note, I understand why older Indian Australians choose to support India, because their childhood dreams gravitated around players such as Bedi, Prasanna, Gavaskar, Venkat etc. What I don't get as much is people my age, and with similar stories to me supporting India. I understand it is continuing the family line of supporting one particular nation, but to that I ask, when does it stop? How many generations down does it have to be before an Indian Australian (born in Australia, raised in Australia) feels comfortable supporting Australia ahead of a country they don't know? And that's probably why I don't support India. I don't know India, and therefore I would be a far worse Indian fan than I ever could be an Australian one. I'm just hoping in years to come people like myself are less the exception and more the rule.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Love it Vas, good article mate! It has always been a trend in Australian sport, that folk with a particular background will support the green and gold until they run into the old country, at which point the allegiances shift. Witness the thousands of fans who left the Socceroos before their R16 clash with Italy back in 2006. I'm glad you are still with us, although that fatefull 2008 test did little to entice you to stay.
Matt F
Guest
At the ground now. One of the best days of the year for me! It's sad that they dropped the old yellow jerseys. And all because the commonwealth banks nice, yellow logo needed to stand out more... -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.