LISA STHALEKAR: Indian fans steal the show as Perth crowd breaks ODI attendance record

It was a record-breaking start to the summer with 42,423 souls braving the rain in Perth to watch the shortened opening fixture of the blockbuster ODI series between Australia and India.

But Cricket Australia can’t really take much credit for it.

At a similar time last year, when Australia played Pakistan in an ODI at the same venue, the game only attracted 19,781; although Test stars Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood were pulled out of the team in preparation for the Border-Gavaskar Test Series.

This time around, Starc and Hazlewood were out in the middle destroying the Indian top order, namely claiming Virat Kohli for a duck.

Labuschagne carried the drinks, as a late inclusion due to Cam Green’s injury, Cummins is under an Ashes-threatening injury cloud, and Smith was on his way home from his pad in the Big Apple.

It is great to draw such a large crowd this early in the cricket season, but if we are to be brutally honest, it wasn’t the Australian cricket team that drew the crowds, it was the Indians.

With superstars Rohit Sharma and Kohli possibly playing their last matches on Australian soil, fans flocked to Perth.

From mobbing them at training prior to the match, to sticking around to watch the delayed match, it shows just how passionate they are for their heroes and team.

Let’s be honest, most Australians would have headed to the pub or gone home once the rain set in, but not the Indian fans. Optus Stadium was a sea of blue, not green and gold.

I have commentated on a game in the Indian Premier League at Eden Gardens in Kolkata where more than 70,000 fans stayed until it was announced that the match was called off.

The torrential rain hadn’t even persuaded them to stay at home.

The fandom around the Indian men’s team ensures that they never feel like they are playing away from home, with more Indian flags being proudly waved for every run and wicket their team inflicts.

Indian fans turn up. Last season, 837,879 fans attended the Indian tour. While many Indian cricket tourists travelled Down Under, most of their supporters were already here.

So, is Cricket Australia providing the right atmosphere at other international matches and both the Big Bash Leagues?

The entertainment is very Americanised and no doubt this summer we will have plenty of renditions of Sweet Caroline, especially with the Barmy Army making the long trip to see Bazball played on faster wickets.

Going to a game in India is completely a different experience and Cricket Australia should look at that for when India play here.

Everyone is transfixed on the action out in the middle or when they are going to be on the big screen, and the Hindi music has a beat that you can’t help but tap along to.

I was lucky enough to be a fan at the MCG T20 World Cup clash between India and Pakistan in 2022. More than 90,000 friendly Indians and Pakistanis engulfed the MCG that night and celebrated one of the best games I have ever seen live.

The Melburnians who are used to AFL Grand Final crowds even commented that it was a different level of energy in the stadium.

Cricket Australia is focused on partial privatisation of the Big Bash Leagues to inject more money into those tournaments, largely hoping to gain better access to the biggest stars of the game, but there are other ways they could do this like tailoring the experience to suit the “away” crowd.

The crowd numbers will be huge this summer and may break all records with two ODIs and three T20s against India, before the English land on our shores for the Ashes.

Cricket Australia needs to harness all these fans and create lifelong fans of the Australian team and players, long after Kohli, Sharma, India and England leave.

Because the game can’t keep relying on the big three to keep playing each other.