Cricket to Blame for Attacks on Indians

In 1930, England got its first taste of what Donald Bradman could be like and his score in the Test series at 900-plus still stands as a record.

If England was to ever win again, it had to do something drastic. Thus it was that after some research of the film footage, Douglas Jardine, the English captain, innovated bodyline bowling. Harold Larwood was to bowl short pitched bumpers which would be on the leg side, since Bradman had a tendency to move away from such attacks.

The result was spectacular and William Woodfull, another Australian batsman, got injured during the 1932-33 Ashes series and Bradman was contained. There was a fantastic row and the police had to be called in to control the angry crowds. The British government complained to its colony but had to forebear from too much protest as trade could be affected and the Depression had not ended yet. Bodyline bowling had to be banned from cricket.

I recall this incident to show that cricket can generate passion in the hearts of nations where it is a religion. Australians love cricket as much as Indians do but they want to always win with a passion that is almost frightening. I know, since in Britain, every Ashes series is treated like a battle.

This, I believe, is also the key to understanding the attacks in Australia on Indians. I have been to Australia several times in the last 30 years and have seen its increasing multiracial tolerance and the richness of the culture of the minorities who live there. Very much like Britain, in its metropolitan areas, Australia is no longer a white nation but a multiracial one. Of course, in both Australia and Britain, there are some racists and nutcases, but not so many that they may cause major trouble.

This is why I want to argue that the attacks in Australia are not racist, but are connected with cricket. It all goes back to the famous or perhaps notorious Sidney Test of January 2008, where there was the Harbhajan Singh/Andrew Symonds incident. Australia was humiliated in that series and has since been displaced from its top position. I have no proven facts but I have a strong hunch that this has built up anti-Indian resentment. It is the sort of thing which starts in pubs late in the evening. Discussing sports obsessively as many men do in Australia (and also Britain, as I can vouch), they begin to focus their resentment at the defeat on “those cheating Indian b...ds”.

Suddenly, as they leave the pub, the first Indian face they see becomes the object of attack. It is a random phenomenon and not the result of a conspiracy. No organisation has claimed responsibility, which is what happened during the attacks on Muslims in 2005. The 130,000 Chinese students in Australia have not suffered any attacks, though the Chinese Government was alarmed enough after attacks on Indian students to get in their protest early in 2009 to the Australian universities organisation. Let me say that this is my hypothesis, which is just a respectable academic name for my guess. I am not blaming anyone, neither Bhajji nor Symonds. Symonds has of course wrecked his career since by wayward and 
undisciplined behaviour.

The only way to check out my hypothesis would be to look at the evidence of all the attacks carefully. The broad facts are that there were none in 2007, a few in 2008 and many more in 2009. They are exclusively by men on men, in urban encounters mostly late at night. I have not been able to find data to check if Sikhs have had to suffer a disproportionate share of the attacks. I am assuming that if anyone finds this guess intriguing, they will check out the pattern of the attacks to see if I make sense. We could start with the MEA. I am told there are junior ministers with little to do. The answer is not to deplore the players but to harness them in a way as to seek harmony.

I would ask the two governments to get the two cricketing sides together and appeal to all to view the matter in the spirit of cricket, where winning or losing was never meant to matter.