India’s last ICC title.
It was 9.30pm in Edgbaston and the presentation had just ended after a thrilling Champions Trophy final. The Indians had completed their victory lap and were gradually making it back to the confines of the dressing room. Outside, however, the party was just about to begin. As I walked out of the media gate, E3, to walk to the car park and get going on the drive to Oxford, I was confronted by a sea of blue. It was simply an Indian takeover of Edgbaston. There was a human chain with close to a 1000 people and each of them was singing “Hum Honge Kaamyaab”. In front of the main entrance to the stadium there were hundreds of Indian fans dancing to the tune of Chak De India. Men and women who don’t even know each other were hugging each other in sheer delight. As I managed to navigate my way to the car park, I could not but help think back to Mohali and the India Pakistan semi-final in the 2011 world cup. Birmingham and Mohali have very similar roundabouts and intersections and just like in Mohali in March 2011, at Edgbaston on 23 June 2013, every roundabout had been taken over by jubilant Indian fans dancing to the tune of drums and other music.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time that such a thing has happened. I remember seeing similar crowd passion at the home of English cricket, Lord’s, in 2009. India was playing England in the second edition of the world T20 on 14 June 2009. Lord’s was awash in a sea of light blue. It did not stop there. Just as Paul Collingwood’s side came out for a pre-match warm-up at the Nursery Ground just behind the media centre, they were booed and jeered by a section of the crowd. England, the home team, was booed at the home of English cricket. The home advantage had been surrendered and the significance of the act was not lost on the English captain, who mentioned at the post-match conference that his side was hurt at such crowd behaviour.
The very same crowd reaction was repeated at Edgbaston. As the names of the two sides were announced in the loudspeaker, M S Dhoni’s name evoked the loudest cheer and Alistair Cook’s a series of boos.
The Indian takeover of Edgbaston had once again brought the question of fan ethics to the fore. If the fans support India in a match against England, do they have the right to identify themselves as British citizens? Also, if they support India, is it an act of betrayal?
British Asian support for India clearly rankles with many and is central to debates on cricket following in England. For this lot, British Asian support for India is unequivocally an act of ‘betrayal’, and they see these Asian communities as ‘the enemy within’. But British Asians I interviewed at Edgbaston consider this outcome a logical fallout of the discrimination they have been subjected to for years. “We have hardly been included in the mainstream of society on occasions. Such marginalisation will inevitably lead to discontent. The cricket field is the best place to manifest it,” was the common sentiment. Many find it unnatural that they will either have to be ‘British’ or ‘Asian’ when it comes to watching cricket and that notions of ‘dual ethnicity’ or ‘cultural hybridity’ are lost on the upper- and middle-class English who continue to cling to quaint notions of Englishness. Most of these British Asians support England when it comes to football. “India is no good at football and we will surely support England. But when it comes to cricket, we know the Indians can provide answers to our suffering, the discrimination we have been subjected to for years. It is only natural we will support India.”
These reactions draw attention to problems rooted in the multicultural demographics of the UK. Had these ‘immigrants’ been integrated with the mainstream of British society, who they support in these games would have become a non-issue. But that is not how things stand, and the sense of being discriminated is real among large sections of immigrant Asians. On the other hand, for the section of white British middle- and upper-classes ranged on the other side of the debate, it is an article of faith that those who enjoy the benefits of living in Britain must support England. Would they feel the same way about a Briton if s/he were to support some other country? Perhaps not. This point of view was borne out by the group of Indian supporters signing Chak De India at Edgbaston. “We are aware that we are in this country to work and earn a living. In an age of globalisation, our skill sets have allowed us to do so. The upper-class English have done us no favour by giving us jobs. Rather, we are plying our trade here because the locals are lacking in these skills. So, we’ll always behave like migrants who continue to have their roots elsewhere and will support the country of our ancestors.”
On occasion, this accuser-accused dynamic has been turned on its head when a British Asian has ‘crossed the line’. When Sajid Mahmood played for England against Pakistan in 2006, it riled sections of British Asians in his native town of Bedford. Mahmood, for them, was Pakistani and should have aspired to play for Pakistan. His right to make his own choice was denied to him and he was booed and heckled every time he stepped up to bowl.
Interestingly enough I had thought the situation had changed for the better during the 2012 London Olympics. It was fascinating to watch white Britishers cheer for Mo Farah, a Somali refugee, as he went on to achieve the incredible double of winning the 5000 and 10,000 meters at the London Games. Mo has since been elevated to the status of legend in the UK and his acceptance into the mainstream of society draws attention to a sense of inclusiveness in British society.
But the post Edgbaston discussion had once again brought to the fore the question, ‘Will England ever become truly multicultural? Will it ever happen that a father continues to support India while the son, born and raised in an England that is open and truly multicultural, backs his home nation?’ The immediate answer is: ‘I don’t know’; a more nuanced answer,: ‘there’s hope still’, it’s conceivable that some years down the line the South Asian community will feel truly empowered.
In 2023 the Indians received huge support in England. Oval was proof.
Does this support really matter to the players? Indeed it does. Ishant Sharma had openly thanked the crowd for standing by him when he bowled that fascinating 18th over in the Champions Trophy final against England. Most other players feel the same and some have even suggested that it helped a great deal at crucial moments in the final.
As we think back to the Champions Trophy and what impact it had on the future of Indian cricket, the issue of crowd support will continue to be at the centre of media scrutiny. This is because patterns of crowd behaviour answer a lot of crucial questions on issues of identity, multiculturalism and pluralism in Britain. While these issues appear far removed from the sport itself, passionate British Asian support for India has ensured that they are at the core of public discourse and will continue to be so going forward.