But this year, there is something extra that needs to be done. As it happens, January 26th is also India’s national day, so this year, in light of the recent incidents in the Sydney test, I wanted to devote my usual Australia Day piece to a piece on the Australia-India relationship.
But first, let us talk about the cricket. It has been a big summer in
The Australian-India test cricket series has been dominated by the ill feeling between the two teams in the Sydney Test with accusations of cheating, racism, and poor sportsmanship. In fact, the Indian captain, Anil Kumble was so incensed that he said after Sydney that “only one side was playing in the spirit of the game” echoing the words of Australian cricketer Bill Woodfull about England’s tactics during the famous ‘Bodyline’ series in 1932-33.
In fact, the similarity between the words of Kumble and Woodfull caused one very clever sub-editor somewhere to call the Sydney Test ‘Bollyline’.
Of course, the Bollyline incident is big news in cricket-mad
And given the importance of cricket as a way of building
Will Bollyline adversely affect
Firstly, the teams and the respective cricket boards of
Many Australians based in
Secondly,
Progress has already been made over the 2000s with Australian exports growing at an annual average rate of growth of almost 29 per cent (compared to
In short, they need us to fuel their growth and build their infrastructure and we need them. In fact, the new Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean is set to visit
Thirdly, there are also growing sectors for Australia and India with education, tourism, financial services, retail, healthcare and franchises all playing an important role. There are currently 1994 Australian businesses exporting to
But can a rupture in cricket lead to better days? There is one historical precedent, a little bit closer to home than
McKechnie was outraged by the lack of sportsmanship and he threw his bat away in disgust. But that was nothing compared to the outrage that the underarm ball caused in political circles across the Tasman with the then New Zealand Prime Minister, the (late) Robert ‘Piggy’ Muldoon saying that it was “the most disgusting incident in the history of cricket” and that “it was fitting that the Australian were dressed in yellow”.
(Actually it was wattle gold, but you got his drift). In some ways, Muldoon spoke for the nation in feeling like the Kiwis weren’t being treated respectfully by their Trans-Tasman cousins.
However, after this tense period in 1981,
Let us hope we get a similar trade effect between