England braced to face fans’ bear pit in own backyard
India’s Bharat Army aim to rattle hosts by making Edgbaston an away day, writes Tim Wigmore
The ball was outside off stump and in Eoin Morgan’s arc. He had just hit his previous ball for six. Had he done the same again, the recent history of English one-day-international cricket would be very different; for one, the pressure to win England’s inaugural ODI global event would have been dispelled. Instead, Morgan miscued the ball to short midwicket.
England then contrived to throw away an apparently unassailable position, needing just 20 from 16 balls with six wickets in hand, to lose the Champions Trophy final in 2013 to India. Many thought that the pressures of a vociferous crowd had got to England at the crux of the game – only the final was at Edgbaston, not Eden Gardens.
“The vast majority of the crowd were Indian supporters. It was really loud the whole day with trumpets and various instruments,” recalls James Tredwell, who faced the final ball of the game, when England needed six to win. At Edgbaston that day, insiders estimate, upwards of 75 per cent of the crowd supported India.
For England cricketers, this was a peculiar dynamic: the notion of home advantage was inverted. “It’s part of playing against India isn’t it? It’s slightly odd because obviously it’s a home game. We sort of knew that was going to be the case.”
Tredwell denies that England were affected by the crowd, but suggests that it could have benefited India’s performance. “It may have lifted India a bit more, certainly when they started getting on that roll.”
The game felt “a little bit” different to the norm at Edgbaston, says Warwickshire’s Ian Bell, another to play in that final. “That’s the beauty of being an international cricketer – being able to deal with what’s going on around the ground and putting that aside and just watching the ball. At the end of the day it’s a game of cricket, it doesn’t change whether the majority of the support is for India or England. It
doesn’t matter.” At Edgbaston tomorrow, the proportion of India fans will be 55 per cent, according to figures from the International Cricket Council. This probably understates the true extent of Indian support: the data is based on ticket buyers, and India fans have tended to go in bigger groups than England fans.
“It will be one of those days where you won’t be able to hear yourself think, it will be that loud,” says Akshay Loomba, a member of India’s Bharat Army supporters’ group. “I would say it’s going to be sort of a 70-30 India-england ratio in the stands. We’ll have our musical instruments, our drums, we’ll be singing songs.”
Whatever the difficulties that England felt managing factions of the Trent Bridge crowd urging Pakistan on will be multiplied manifold tomorrow. “It’s going to be the match of the tournament,” Loomba says.
He argues that, in 2013, the noise from Indian fans “contributed to the downfall of England”.
“We’ve seen it in the past where England have come out and said it’s like playing an away game. And that is exactly what we try and do – turn every India game into a home game. With the pressure England are under in a must-win game, it certainly will rattle them. We’ll do our very, very best to make it like a home game for India and put real pressure on the English boys.
“In England it’s going to be something on Sunday that they’re probably not used to, having a crowd full of Indian fans. Absolutely it will rattle them. With the game situation, the pressure on the match, combined with the fact they’re playing what will be an away game for them, we’re hoping that England will crumble.”
Loomba is a Londoner born and raised, and for all his devotion to Indian cricket, he previously represented England in kabaddi, a contact sport originating in southern Asia. “I’ve been brought up as an Indian fan. I support England in lots of other sports.”
It is a microcosm of how identities, in sport and beyond, are not binary. Indeed, Rakesh Patel, the founder of the Bharat Army, who also grew up in London, has been to four football World Cups to support England.
“It’s just a matter of choice – family values and what they
‘We take pride in being India’s 12th man. We were in 2013 and will be again on Sunday’
believe in,” Patel says. “I’m very proud to be British Indian. I’m very proud to be born in this country, but my parents brought me up to be very patriotic, very proud of where my heritage was. I had a choice, it wasn’t forced on me in any way.” For British Indians, he says, “when it’s India versus England they’re going to lean more towards where their heritage is – I don’t think it’s any more than that really”.
Happily, the wider discourse around British Indian identity has moved away from the Tebbit test. “We know that many British South Asian fans are proud of their heritage and are also passionate about the sport,” says Lord Patel, an independent board member of the England and Wales Cricket Board. “I believe that sport, and cricket in particular, has played an important role in bringing communities and people together – the England team are a great example of that, with players from a wide range of backgrounds.”
Two decades after India knocked England out of their home World Cup at Edgbaston, tomorrow presents an opportunity for them to go a long way towards doing so again. Yet, whatever takes place on the pitch, the match will be another distillation of India’s off-field clout in the sport. For any team facing India in the World Cup, anywhere, there is no such thing as home advantage.
“We pride ourselves, the Bharat Army, on being India’s 12th man,” Loomba says. “We were the 12th man in 2013, and we’re going to be the 12th man on Sunday as well.”