Right here waiting for you

Indiarsquos visit to Australia in 202425 is probably the first time they will arrive here with genuine expectations that go beyond the optimistic Players media supporters of both teams and even the neutrals will be salivating at the prospect of a genuine 5050 contest where it is difficult to afford either team outright favouritism Commonsense leans towards a home team advantage but not since the early days of the Allan Border captaincy era has a Test summer started with Australia not perceiving themselves as being in the box seatClearly India have the batting personnel albeit ageing the bowling nous and the confidence to approach the series with cautious optimism tempered slightly by the chastening loss to NZ That blip needs to be viewed in context though mdash the conditions and mindset could not be more different The BorderGavaskar Trophy has an enervating effect on India that is perhaps only matched in intensity when if India play PakistanA tour of Australia is no longer an lsquoawayrsquo trip except in the mere physical sense of geography They have an imposing foreign legion made up of not only Indians from India but loyal and boisterous expats from around the world who are unapologetically proud to identify with their motherland however tenuous that intergenerational link may be Cauldrons like the MCG and the Gabba are no longer to be feared mdash the vocal support that Team India can expect and the heat that can be reversed on Australia would have been unthinkable to commentators like Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri when they first toured here in India colours in 197778 and 1985 respectivelyAlso ReadKiran George moves into 2nd round of Korea MastersI attended the last two days of the 202021 Gabba Test and you could almost see the confusion on Australian faces on and off the field as the wave of euphoria picked up Rishabh Pant as he stormed home to that famous winBrisbane was also one of the places where unpleasant crowd behaviour culminated in some ugly chants that were targeted at Mohammad Siraj in particular Despite the assurances of the hosts that is unlikely to change much this time around even without Tim Painersquos needling and the everlooming presence of the David Warner aura The Indian diaspora is now spread throughout Australia and they have made their presence felt in cricket circles like never before Even in club cricket the presence of homegrown Indian talent is everpresent It is no longer tokenism the South Asian footprint is no longer a gentle apologetic tread on Australian turf It is a thump that cannot be ignored such is both the skill passion and the sense that one need not apologise for identifying with an Indian heritageThere is a dark underbelly to this phenomenon though Spend every weekend as I do watching club cricket and you see hear things that can only be described as unnecessary and ugly Racial vilification has always been a constant bedfellow but it has now morphed into something even more insidious Many of the protagonists have now adopted the pathetic ldquobanterrdquo excuse for themselves and are using it to devastating effect in internecine rivalry The socalled ldquofriendly firerdquo abuse has gone beyond the pale LiterallyIt is now commonplace to hear brutal sledging as young as under8 where children are being ldquootheredrdquo according to which part of India their ancestors hail from Itrsquos heartbreaking to see children sobbing because theyrsquove been subjected to sledging along the lines of ldquogo back to India you donrsquot belong hererdquo but itrsquos coming from other children and parents who are now bringing their tribal animosities to Brisbane playing fields A young child whose parents hail from Chennai was brutally vilified on Saturday for being from Chennai in the most cruel way imaginable and it was bittersweet to see him comforted by AngloSaxon friends who were horrified that their little mate was being savaged from within his own communityOf course it is naive to think that ldquocommunityrdquo extends to a country as large and diverse as India It is almost a continent in itself replete with a multitude of subcultures dialects and regional idiosyncrasies It is nonetheless distressing to think that 40 years on from arriving here as a migrant in 1984 that the most hurtful sledging is likely to come from inside the tent My sons now 21 and 18 are now adults playing First Grade club cricket and probably immune from those petty barbs but it makes them uncomfortable to witness behaviours from people they perceive as brethren To people who donrsquot understand the history of an ancient country like India it is hard for them to understand why these insults hurt just as much as when it comes from a more predictable place Some of the abuse that the Indian Test cricketers will cop in the next few months will inevitably come from people they least expect it from Gregory David Roberts like me an Australian with a deep and abiding love of India says this in Shantaram ldquoTherersquos no meanness too spiteful or too cruel than when we hate for all the wrong reasonsrdquoPitching it upVenuewise Test victories by India in AustraliaPerth1 in 200708Adelaide2 in 200304 amp 201819Brisbane1 in 202021 Melbourne4 in 197778 198081 201819 202021Sydney1 in 197778Brisbanebased Michael Jeh is a former firstclass cricketer