MELBOURNE, 12 November, 2024: The iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is gearing up for the Australia-India Boxing Day Test starting 26 November, 2024, for the Border – Gavaskar Trophy, ushering the Summer of Cricket for this season. After the announcement at an event where Cricket Australia (CA) and UNICEF decide on a partnership to fight for gender equality, I come across four special pages of today’s Herald-Sun, Indian Summer Cricket Guide with ‘Hindi-English Front Page’ and ‘Punjabi-English Back Page’. So, there is a bit of Hindi text on Page 1 and a bit of Punjabi text on page 8.
The rest is in English, the language Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) who served on the Governor-General’s Council and introduced it in British India (in fact, the world’s 1st or 2nd London-based multinational company East India Company ruled India). Australia’s Indian Diaspora, being ardent English language & Cricket lovers, with a nationalistic fervour for their mother tongues Hindi and Punjabi (there are many more) may find the wrap unusual but enticing, provided they bought the Herald Sun hard copy. Page 1 has Virat Kohli and page 4 has Yashavi Jaiswal, a poster of Virat Kohli in the centre pages and Swami Army’s decent on Australia.
This 8-pages supplement or pull-out (wrap), “Howzat- Mega Stars Fans ‘Follow On Socials”, a News Corp media release says, has – Cricket’s most popular players revealed in special multilingual guide, Australia v India rivalry explored from every angle and off course, what’s inside the Swami Army.
And, “Indian cricket sensation Virat Kohli – who boasts 386 million fans – has been crowned cricket’s no.1, outranked only by football megastars Cristiano Ronaldo (925.6m) and Lionel Messi (621m) in the list of the world’s most followed athletes.
Australia’s Steve Smith is our nation’s top shot, with 10 million followers, but he wouldn’t place among India’s top eight.
As Australia prepares to take on India in an action-packed Test series from November 22, a special multilingual preview guide today explores the Australia v India rivalry from every angle, including every player’s social status.
It reveals that a whopping 629 million accounts – across Facebook, X, and Instagram – follow India’s Test XI. That’s roughly 27 times the following of Australia’s expected Test XI (23 million), and nearly 24 times the population of Australia (26.6 million).
If it were a country, the Indian Test XI’s social media following would be the third most populous in the world, with nearly twice the population of the USA.
The social stats are revealed in an 8-page wrap of The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail, and The Advertiser today which, for the first time, features content published in both Hindi and Punjabi.
The coverage reveals Indian superstar Kohli is the only cricketer among the 20 most-followed athletes in the world. The bulk of those followers come via Instagram, where he boasts the platform’s 16th biggest account – 271 million – sandwiched between Jennifer Lopez and National Geographic.
Many of these followers are part of the Swami Army which is expected to pack out bays in blue across the summer’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Angadh Oberoi, who founded the iconic fan group more than two decades ago, said he expected around 4000 to 5000 fans in the active Indian support area per day of both the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, as well as solid showings in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.
“We’ve just got so much passion for cricket,” he said. “In a land as diverse as India with so many different languages and cultures and religions, this is one of the things that unites everyone. I could be sitting next to a Tamil speaker or an Urdu speaker and we can all be supporting the same team, whereas outside cricket we may have different views on things.”
Today’s wrap includes insights from leading Fox Cricket voices Adam Gilchrist (Gilly), Mark Waugh, Isa Guha, Ravi Shastri, and Brett Lee. It will be followed by a 16-page ultimate launch guide on Sunday November 17, also containing content in Hindi and Punjabi.”
Inside it has – The New Ashes: Why This Rivalary Is Going to Another Level, India’s Social media Rock Stars, Virat Kohli Hero Poster and The 8 Most Explosive Match-Ups.
There will be five tests between Australia & India starting with the Boxing Day Test after many years. TheNews Corp wrap today is a move to capitalise on the rising strength of the Indian/South Asian Diaspora in Australia. I heard, the Boxing Day Test is sold out. Virat Kohli might be a (in fact, he is) rock star with 386 million fans, but Indian/South Asian people understand the game and like good cricket. They will even cheer for Australians when they play well and hit a 4 or a 6. For the Swamy Army’s effect on the Indian game, one has to wait and see. No doubt, Indian fans will be more proud of Virat Kohli, and his stats in the wrap.
Well, the wrap could have visited the MCG (MCC) Library, which has so much memorabilia including books and physical records of past Indian matches (Cricket & Hockey) played at the MCG. I advice Indian Cricket fans and others visiting the MCG to go the MCG Library and look at the nostalgic cricket stuff including that of Indian tours there. The MCC Library is located on Level 3 of the MCC Members’ Reserve. It is open to members between 10.00am and 4.00pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and also on match days. The general public can visit by appointment.
After stumps on day three of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India at the MCG, fans will walk across the road and enjoy yet another iconic international event at the John Cain Arena. The thrilling double header starts with a curtain-raiser, featuring a team of Australian athletes taking on an Indian team of Pro Kabaddi players.
Cricket unites India, not this or that language. India has 23 official languages including English. The Gentleman’s Game is also an Indian game, can be traced back almost three centuries ago to 1721 ,says stevewaugh.com.au . The same applies to the Indian/South Asian Diaspora in Australia. They are geared up for this Summer of Cricket. At the MCG (at least) is much more than Cricket.
