Team India Generates Bedlam Like No Other Cricket Team

Indian fans came out in force in Perth (Photo by Janelle St Pierre – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

Cricket Australia via Getty Images

Underlining cricket’s cramped calendar, India made the long journey to Western Australia for their limited-overs tour just one day after their Test series against West Indies ended in Delhi.

Most of the India squad and staff arrived in the early hours of October 16 and it was widely assumed they would not be training that day given the travel demands and jet lag – there is a two-and-a-half hour time difference between Perth and Delhi.

But India did decide to have an optional training session that only the press were given a heads up on although it was not known who exactly would turn up.

To the delight of the local reporters, Virat Kohli – the sport’s transcendent player even as he nears retirement – and recently deposed captain Rohit Sharma were part of just five players who decided to hit the ground running.

After a light session in the innards of the magnificent 60,000-seat Optus Stadium, Kohli and Rohit headed to the nets where they underwent 40-minute workouts. Word slowly got around on a quiet Thursday afternoon in sleepy Perth as Indian fans started to trickle to the nets even though they could only watch behind a fence.

They surely didn’t mind after India’s heavy-handed tactics last year when the nearby WACA ground was closed off to the public, with big shade cloth covering the entirety of the nets.

There was no need for fans to resort to drastic measures and bring ladders or climb trees as they lapped up watching their heroes close up. The crowd swelled and it was hard not to compare the scenes to Australia’s training session earlier in the day where just a few people passing by curiously glanced over.

It underlined the increasing gulf of difference between cricket’s power nations. For a long time, up until about 20 years, Australia was cricket’s cash cow and the dominant force on-and-off field.

They remain an on-field power – they beat India to win the 2023 World Cup in India and also beat their rivals during last summer’s blockbuster Test series – but India have totally taken over off it.

Their governing body is filthy rich, essentially controlling the sport, while the India men’s team are the sport’s rock stars. It’s a travelling circus for India – cricket’s equivalent of Team USA in basketball. There are fans stalking their every move, while cameras are constantly in their faces.

It’s little wonder they are overmanaged and their minders can be extra protective even though the players seem generally to be at ease with it all. The fans attending the training session were in for a treat as a jovial Kohli and Rohit signed autographs and posed for selfies.

The scenes were bedlam as fans from all around the place sprinted like they were racing Usain Bolt to get to where the Indian legends had momentarily stopped as a crush ensued around them.

Before that some fans had desperately resorted to asking journalists if they could get Kohli to sign items for them, leading to much laughter from the scribes who knew their careers would end on the spot if they even dared attempt such a stunt.

With the cat out of the bag, India’s training sessions on the subsequent two days swelled even more and it was inevitable that the 42,000-strong crowd in the series-opener was about 70 per cent wearing blue.

It underlines that cricket’s heartbeat has well and truly shifted from England and Australia to India, where the bat and ball game is by far the most popular sport in a country with more than a billion people.

With plenty of expats spread all around the world, it ensures that Team India’s every move sparks a frenzy in a sensory overload unparalleled in this quaint sport.