2022 T20 World Cup: Heading to Melbourne for the India-Pak match? Here's what to expect

The India-Pakistan match will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Image credit: @MCG/Twitter)

Any proof you needed of cricket being an Indian sport played by the Commonwealth group of nations, came on Friday night at the Melbourne airport.

A men’s T20 World Cup is underway in Australia and around 95 percent of the passengers streaming in from various corners of the world seem to be of Indian origin. You can sense the buzz in the immigration queue as Indians from various corners of the country are coming in speaking in Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali et al.

There are Indians who have come in groups as part of a company initiative, some others have come in on their own, whereas some others are flying in from neighbouring New Zealand. All this for the first match that India plays on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) against their traditional rivals Pakistan.

Also see: In Pics: The stadiums hosting T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia

As you stand in the long serpentine queue, the language of the passengers reminds you of back home. The queue itself is a reminder of the amount of time Indians spend waiting to get their turn at railway stations, bus stops or to basically get into the airports at most times.

And as you would expect, the Indians manage to create three queues out of just one! The immigration officer, a Mongolian origin Australian, is simply amazed at the tenacity to get the passport stamped and move on to the real reason we're here.

You can sense that the interest around the first India v Pakistan clash is high, because you can see different groups of tourists organised by companies as part of an HR initiative. There is a leader for each group carrying a flag to identify the group as one. There are a few Pakistanis as well who have flown in via the three connecting flights that landed at the Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne at the same time around 9.30 pm Australian time. The airport is not known to receive so many passengers at one time.

The first thing you realise upon landing in Australia is that the country is obsessed with biosecurity and will go to any extent to eliminate all sorts of pandemics/epidemics. We are asked to declare if we are carrying food packets and satisfy other requirements while landing in Australia, else be ready to pay fines or be sniffed by a dog.

The first immigration officer that you meet, asks a simple question: Have you been to Indonesia in the past week? You ask him why and realise that there is a new threat looming large: foot and mouth disease. If you have been to Indonesia, then you will be separated from the queue.

The queue itself moves swiftly, but there is hardly any signage of the T20 World Cup at the airport thus far. The growing multi-culturalism of the Australian nation is visible when out of the six immigration counters at least three are manned by people of Asian origin, including Indians!

You do eventually get through, but that biosecurity check is once again the last hoop to jump before you exit the airport. Outside, you realise the growing number of Indians in the city arriving to watch that one match that has promised to catch the attention of the globe.

A huge board proclaiming “Welcome to Melbourne” has many lined up to take selfies.

But don’t tell the Indians arriving in the city that there is bad news waiting outside. It has started raining again and it is quite heavy, yet again. For the past 10 days rains have lashed Melbourne city, even leading to flash floods. There is a strong chance that the rains will affect the mega clash on Sunday, but we will not dwell on that too much.

The taxi driver, an East African, is surprised that there is an India v Pakistan clash in Melbourne. “Why don’t they play in their own countries? Why travel all the way here?” he asks innocently. His question confirms the complete lack of interest in the tournament or even the sport that is slowly evaporating from the minds of the once mighty Australia, the defending champion!

The taxi driver, too, confirms our suspicions of the rain threat. But the weekend in Melbourne is big as there are two massive derby races at the race course. That the driver was aware of that more than the Indo-Pak clash was telling.

Later that night I meet two more taxi drivers, an Indian and Pakistani, who are more aware of the tournament brewing, especially the clash on Sunday at the historic G as the venue is called. They have blocked their tickets for Sunday’s clash. “Baarish hoga toh poora waste ho jaayega,” reminds the Indian origin taxi driver tracing his roots to Jaipur.

Weekend partying is in full swing, with the night life in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne living up to its potential. The rains have subsided to an extent, but the threat still looms large.

It will be a massive disappointment if they do not manage to squeeze in at least five overs on either side to constitute a match. If they don’t manage to get the contest going, how will one explain to that East African taxi driver why so many of us have turned up just for this one game!

So, let’s all pray that the weekend is not ruined for a billion plus Indians both back home and here in Melbourne. While you are at it, also throw the Pakistanis in the mix. We do make this great game tick even now, while everyone including the host nation has forgotten it!