{"id":193443,"date":"2026-07-14T16:55:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=193443"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:25:56","slug":"watching-australian-sport-embrace-modi-broke-my-heart-and-showed-inclusion-is-still-just-a-strategy-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=193443","title":{"rendered":"Watching Australian sport embrace Modi broke my heart \u2013 and showed inclusion is still just a strategy | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"


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For most of my life, being Indian, Muslim, Australian and devoted to sport has never felt like a contradiction. Until now.<\/p>\n

When I saw AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and Australian cricket legend Steve Waugh smiling alongside Indian prime minister Narendra Modi<\/a> last week, I wasn\u2019t simply watching a diplomatic engagement. I was watching two institutions I love celebrate a leader whose name carries deep pain for many people like me.<\/p>\n

It broke my heart. It made me wonder whether these organisations wanted my identity on paper \u2013 but not what came with it. Some of my family hoped I wouldn\u2019t write this. They fear the backlash that comes with publicly criticising the Modi government. That isn\u2019t hypothetical. It\u2019s our reality.<\/p>\n

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Cricket Australia used Modi\u2019s visit to announce the Big Bash League\u2019s first match in India as part of a broader Australia-India trade and cultural delegation, while the AFL showcased its own ambitions to grow the game across India. Both organisations see India \u2013 and the Indian diaspora \u2013 as central to their future.<\/p>\n

Modi is the democratically elected leader of the world\u2019s largest democracy and one of Australia\u2019s most important strategic partners. That is true.<\/p>\n

But for many Indian Sikhs, Muslims and Christians, Modi\u2019s name represents a decade of growing fear. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly criticised his Hindu nationalist government over discrimination against religious minorities, crackdowns on dissent, pressure on journalists and civil society, and the erosion of democratic freedoms. Australia has also publicly dealt with allegations of Indian government interference<\/a> on its own soil.<\/p>\n

Both realities exist. That is exactly why this moment in sport mattered. Not because sport should refuse to engage with governments. International relationships are complex, and sport has always intersected with politics. Cricket<\/a> Australia\u2019s (CA) relationship with India is significant. What troubled me was whether anyone had considered what that relationship would communicate to the Indian Muslims, Christians and Sikhs who also call Australia home.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Narendra Modi is joined by the Australian prime minister and Victorian premier at the MCG. The Big Bash season will open with a game in India.<\/span> Photograph: Daniel Pockett\/Getty Images for Cricket Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sport understands symbolism. It knows that who stands beside whom sends a message. Both CA and the AFL<\/a> have active multicultural strategies targeting India and Indian Australians. Yet this embrace of the Modi government risks sending a message that the Indian voices worth engaging are only those that reflect the majority. For minority communities, that isn\u2019t an abstract political point. It\u2019s what it feels like to be overlooked twice \u2013 first as a minority in India, then again in Australia.<\/p>\n

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