Culture Clash

Fact: top level sport thrives on bitter rivalries. Tension creates drama, and drama in turn creates entertainment. And few modern day sporting rivalries can claim to be as acrimonious as that between the Indian and Australian cricket teams.

It is a contest that matches the Ashes in terms of significance, controversy and pure white-knuckle style entertainment. However to truly understand the depth of feeling it is important to understand both the history of the match-up and the context of it.

Throughout the last decade India have been the only team to consistently challenge the all-conquering Australians in both forms of the game. Despite the fact that India have only occasionally occupied the no. 2 spot in the official world rankings, the superstars in the Indian line up (Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid etc.) have always been able to rise to the challenge of confronting the Australians. Beyond the closeness of the games, there have been numerous sub-plots that have added an extra layer of intrigue to the contest, though not all of these asides have reflected well on the game of cricket.

In the most recent series held in Australia at the turn of this year, there were accusations made against spin bowler Habajan Singh, alleging that he had racially abused Andrew Symonds. The charges brought against Singh were eventually dropped after the Indians had threatened to withdraw from the tour; the incident almost caused a diplomatic crisis. Since that time the two sets of players have continued to trade insults through the media and there is a very real danger that the tension could spill over when they face off in the 1^st Test.

Beyond the purely sporting, on-field acrimony there exists an off-field tension that has creates an interesting back-drop for the series. Both countries occupy unique positions in world cricket: Australia is the dominant force in the game whilst Indian is the commercial powerhouse.

So when MS Dhoni and Ricky Ponting walk out for the coin toss later this week prepare yourself for another predictably unpredictable contest.