‘Exotic, mysterious creatures’ and ‘road warriors’: Australian perceptions of touring Indian cricket teams, 1947–2012

Abstract

In attempting to define and explain the nature of the connections between Australia and India since the Second World War, Australian politicians, academics and journalists alike have frequently observed that, whatever the ebbs and flows in the relationship, cricket has provided the one consistent link. However, even if we accept that when Australians thought of India, they most often thought in terms of cricket, what then was the nature of their imaginings, and how were they formed? This article seeks to address these questions about the nature of Australians’ perceptions of Indian cricketers – and, by extension, of India itself – through a thematic survey of local accounts of Indian cricket tours as published in the popular press and the writings of sports journalists and cricketers.

Despite a brief surge of enthusiastic diplomatic and political cooperation between Jawaharlal Nehru’s new government and the Chifley Labour administration following Indian independence in 1947, India rarely figured in the popular Australian consciousness in the following decades as an obsession with the advance of communism in Southeast Asia dominated the interests of conservative prime minister Menzies and his successors. An Indian cricket team toured Australia in the summer of 1947–1948, but even the cricketing connection was a tenuous one. Indian cricket was obliged to wait for 20 years for another invitation, in 1967–1968, and then for 10 years until 1977–1978 to properly enter the Australian imaginary. As Indian teams showed themselves to have become more competitive during the 1980s, visits became more regular, particularly as Australian authorities recognized India’s rise as international cricket’s financial powerhouse and the financial benefits to be gained from a closer relationship. With a series of bitterly fought Test matches over the past decade, India has come to challenge England’s place as Australia’s greatest rival in the mind of the local cricket community.

Australian commentaries on the early tours initially borrowed heavily from an orientalist rhetoric of racial stereotypes, drawn in turn from a British imperial vocabulary that constructed Indian cricketers in terms of artistry, magic and inspired brilliance, on the one hand, and as lethargic and lacking in physical strength and endurance on the other. These images were challenged, though not entirely displaced, during the latter decades of the century as the Australian media registered a growing awareness of a new type of Indian cricketer, the globalized sportsman driven by a ruthless, ‘win-at-all-costs’ mentality. Orientalist judgements however continued to persist, even in the Australian press coverage of recent tours, spilling over into contemporary Australian perceptions of Indian modernity.

Keywords:

• cricket
• nation
• race
• identity
• popular press

Notes

1. For a discussion of cricket’s popularity at the time of Independence, see Guha, 321–9.

2. Appadurai, “Playing with Modernity,” 31–2.

3. Taleyarkhan, United India, 159.

4. Broinowski, “Orange Juice or Great Western,” 82–3.

5. Sydney Morning Herald, December 3, 1947; Stoddart, “The Centrality of Cricket,” 1681; and Majumdar, Twenty-Two Yards to Freedom, 349.

6. Argus (Melbourne), February 11, 1948.

7. Sydney Morning Herald, November 10 and 19, 1947; Argus, January 7, 1948.

8. Bradman’s competitive nature was beginning to cause dissent within the Australian dressing room as much as it was among spectators. See Knox, Bradman’s War.

9. Sydney Morning Herald, November 19, 1947; Sun (Sydney), November 30, 1947. Mankad had twice warned Brown in previous tour matches, as well as Arthur Morris during the first Test. Sun, November 28, 1947; Sydney Morning Herald, December 15, 17, and 19, 1947. See also the various letters to the Editor supporting Mankad’s actions in Sydney Morning Herald, December 17, 1947.

10. Courier-Mail (Brisbane), November 27, 1947.

11. Sun, November 30, December 4, 1947.

12. Courier-Mail, November 21 and 22, 1947.

13. Taylor, “Why Rai Singh Wears Turban.” See also Robinson, Between Wickets, 201.

14. Said, Orientalism, 73.

15. Sydney Morning Herald, November 7, 11, 19, and 28, 1947.

16. Broinowski, 84–7.

17. Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 4–5.

18. Tyson, “No Other Man in the World”; Butler, ‘‘Magic Carpet’ Brings New Hope to India.”

19. Courier-Mail, January 4, 1968; Sydney Morning Herald, December 31, 1967; and Sun, January 23, 1968.

20. Sun, December 4, 1967; Sydney Morning Herald, December 31, 1967.

21. McGregor, Indian Summer, 70.

22. Benaud, “Pataudi a ‘Must’ to Play in Test”; Coward, 90.

23. Fingleton, “A Series to Savour but the Cricket Will Be Tough.”

24. For a discussion of the development of sporting values in the British empire, see Mangan, The Games Ethic, 1986.

25. Sydney Morning Herald, December 31, 1967; Age, January 1, 1968.

26. Age, January 4, 1968.

27. Appadurai, “Playing with Modernity,” 40.

28. Sydney Morning Herald, December 3 and 18, 1967; Courier-Mail, December 3 and 9, 1967, January 10, 1968; and Sun, December 27, 1967;

29. Boxall, “Bishan [sic] Singh Bedi.”

30. Daily Telegraph (Sydney), December 7, 1967; Roebuck, In It To Win It, 65.

31. See note 29 above.

32. Age, December 7, 1967; Daily Telegraph, December 7, 1967.

33. Sun, January 31, 1968.

34. Courier-Mail, December 31, 1977.

35. Tasker, “Aussies Break Through.”

36. Shiell, “Bobby and Bish—What a Top Act!”

37. Age, December 7 and 31, 1977; Sun, December 7 and 20, 1977.

38. Ibid.

39. The headline to an article by Mike Coward in the Sydney Morning Herald, December 18, 1985.

40. Ibid.

41. For some examples see Sun, January 28, 1981; Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 1981; McFarlaine, “Another Three-day Finish”; Ken Piesse, “Aussies Hold back KO Punch.” Statistics would seem to provide substance to the Indians’ concerns; the Sun reported 17 leg-before-wicket decisions went against them during the 1981 series and only five against the Australians. Sun, January 28, 1981.

42. Sun, February 10, 1981; Mossop, “Gavaskar’s Test Lament.”

43. Coward, “Umpires Cost Us Victory, says Dev.”

44. Cashman, Ave a Go, Yer Mug!, 142, 171–2; Sydney Morning Herald, December 16 and 18, 1985; Courier-Mail, December 17, 1985; and Age, December 18, 1985.

45. Sydney Morning Herald, December 16 and 18, 1985; Courier-Mail, December 17, 1985; Age, December 18, 1985.

46. Woodward, ‘‘No Sledging’ says Irate Border.”

47. Nandy has argued that diverging views about the identity of cricket reflect changes in different societies. Nandy, The Tao of Cricket, 2–3.

48. Bose, Indian Cricket, 333; Sun, January 7, 1986.

49. Kavoori, “Playing with Postcoloniality,” 153–4.

50. Woodward, “We’re the Worst in the World.”

51. Horan, “Oh Calcutta, It’s Been a Black Day”; Courier-Mail, January 4, 1986.

52. Chappell, “We Need Close Series.”

53. Sun, December 31, 1985; Daily Telegraph, January 27 and 28, 1985; Piesse, “Aussies Hold Back KO Punch”; Australian, December 27, 1985.

54. Sweeney, “The Games We Play”; Daily Telegraph, December 12, 1985.

55. Woodward, “Aussies Kiss the Test Goodbye”; Daily Telegraph, January 3, 1986; Sleeman, “The Man with Thunder in His Bat Gets that Ton at Last!”

56. Ibid.

57. Mossop, “India Pay for Captain’s Error”; Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 1981; Wilkins, “‘Scared’ Indians put Their Neck [sic] in Noose.”

58. Sinha has argued that the British in India developed the tactic of labelling Indians as physical cowards and then equating this with moral weakness as a crucial method for subordinating and controlling the colonised population. See Sinha, Colonial Masculinity.

59. McFarlaine, Cricket in Australia, 82–4.

60. McFarlaine, “Back from the Dead”; Wilkins: “Au Revoir (until next summer).”

61. Ibid.

62. Interview with Ravi Shastri. “Grandstand,” ABC Radio 702, Sydney, February 5, 2012.

63. Cricketer, February 1992, 19, no. 5, 15.

64. Cricketer, January 1992, 19, no. 4, 10.

65. Sydney Morning Herald, January 6, 2000; Australian, January 3, 2000; Waugh, Out of My Comfort Zone, 59.

66. Ray, “No Tikka.” For a later example, see “Ticker Masala.” Sydney Morning Herald, January 3 and 10, 2012.

67. Roebuck, “Laxman Stands Alone and Brave Warrior among the Wilted.”

68. Sinha, 8, 27–8.

69. Roebuck, “Ruthless Team Could Rank among the Greats.”

70. Roebuck, “It’s Time to Eat Our Humble Pie…but with a Vindaloo Filling.”

71. Coward, “Sehwag Uses Basic Instincts to Produce Flair.”

72. Pandaram, “Viewers Take a Subcontinental Shift from England.”

73. Haigh, Sphere of Influence, xi.

74. Dabkowski, “Indian Cricket Fever.”

75. Dorries, “Australian Players Are Making a Fortune Out of Commercial Deals in India.”

76. Dabkowski, “Indian Cricket Fever”; Jason Dowling, “Swami Army Roars to Full Battle Cry.” Age, December 2, 2003.

77. Barrett, “Argy-bhaji.”

78. Hurrell, “Quicks-fix a Key to India’s Tour Form”; Craddock, “Indians Beating Us at Our Own Game.”

79. For example, Zaheer Khan was from Shrirampur in Maharashtra, Harbhajan Singh from Jalandhar in Punjab, Virender Sehwag from Najafgarh outside Delhi, M. S. Dhoni from Ranchi and Umesh Yadav from a miners’ village near Nagpur in central India.

80. See note 71 above.

81. Dorries, “India’s Sledge Pledge.”

82. Craddock and Earle, “We Want Top Spot”; Craddock, “Indians Beating Us at Our Own Game.”

83. Reed, “The Fighting Tigers Force an Epic Series.”

84. Craddock, “Road Warriors Stunned Champions.”

85. Hinds, “Villain Production Soars as Mirror Manufacturing Slumps”; Age, January 7, 2003.

86. Pierik, “Sledging Claims Surface Again.” The Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka maintains the terms “black monkeys” and “useless darkies” were commonly used by Australian cricketers to abuse their Sri Lankan opponents during the 1980s and 1990s. See Karunatilaka, Chinaman, 181, 283.

87. Marshallsea, “Ritchie Appearance at Test May Cause Race Row.”

88. Marshallsea, “Bitter Racist Aftertaste to a Feast of Fair Play”; Sydney Morning Herald, December 16, 2003.

89. Dowling, “Swami Army Roars to Full Battle Cry.”

90. Saltau and Hanlon, “Match ‘Banter’ Lost in Translation?”

91. Sydney Morning Herald, December 16, 2003; Roebuck, “Courage Under Fire, Now It’s Game On”; Haigh, “The Seamier Side of Patriot Games.”

92. Barrett, “Dhoni’s Gesture Lecture to Taunted Team Points Finger at Abusive Fans.”

93. Knox, “Clarke’s Test Heroics Will Stand Test of Time.” Knox’s perspective on Laxman was not unique. See other journalists’ accounts of the batting wizardry of Dravid, Sehwag and Tendulkar. Sydney Morning Herald, December 26 and 30, 2003, January 2, 2008.

94. For an account of Australian perceptions of Ranjitsinhji, see Simpson, “Ranjitsinhji in Australia,” 336–50.

95. Hulme, Colonial Encounters, 47–50.

96. Wagg, “Calypso Kings, Dark Destroyers,” 181–203.

97. Stoddart, “Centrality of Sport,” 1680.

98. Appadurai, “Playing with Modernity,” 40.

99. Nandy, The Tao of Cricket, 86–7, 92–3.

100. Majumdar, “A New Dimension?,” 196–205, 199–201.

101. Haigh, Inside Out, 44.

102. Mark, “Public Relations Campaign for Cricketers.”