It was the India versus Pakistan encounter at the 2019 World Cup and I was in Manchester a couple of days ahead of the match soaking in the atmosphere and building up to the game. Curry mile, the desi hub in Manchester, was all decked up. New items on the menu in almost all of the restaurants to multiple events with cricket stars for the thousands who had trooped into to the city, this was a Manchester that had been completely Asianised. And most of the fans had flown in from India or Pakistan or the huge South Asian diasporas in the USA and Canada.
Interestingly, a number of these trips had been put together by Indian and Pakistani friends working together in the diaspora. For them, it was about experiencing the world cup together and celebrating sport in a manner that only sport makes room for. In fact, I remember my cameraperson feeling unwell on the morning of the game and as I was about to go live on television he started throwing up. Seeing me a tad nervous, a group of Pakistani fans who were on their way to the stadium asked if things were under control. While one turned out to be a doctor and even passed on a medicine to make him feel better, two of them held my equipment facilitating the broadcast.
Here I was saying Pakistan had little chance in the game on Indian television and here they were Pakistani fans holding my camera allowing me to say so! We posed for photos thereafter and it was all done in a spirit of camaraderie and friendly banter. There was no jingoism and the little tete-a-tete ended with a samosa party thanks to one of them taking out delicious home made samosas.
Between 2005-2015, there would be only a handful of Indians at global sports events. Not so anymore. Rather, there were thousands like me in England in 2019 and now things have grown even bigger. Dubai on 23 February will serve as an index of how big sports tourism is as an industry in India.
“Fans no longer travel just to watch a match. It is now a well curated trip. They will watch the game sitting right behind the bowlers arm, attend a pre match gala dinner with the world’s best cricketers and finally will want the choicest Indian food packed for them at the venues” says Raghav Gupta head of Fanatic sports.
Frankly, this is where things have changed in the last few years. While Adelaide in 2015 during the World Cup was also a sea of blue ahead of the India Pakistan game, most fans then were happy to sleep on beanbags at the airport or just bunk up with locals. Sports tourism, in the sense we understand it, was just making its presence felt in India. In England in 2019, things were profoundly different. And come India v Pakistan on 23 February, Dubai will be a sea of blue with Indian fans trooping in from all parts of the world. These fans now come from all strata of society and it is no longer the fiefdom of HNI’s as was the case earlier. It has in a way democratised sport like never before, making it a true melting pot of cultures.
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