The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup saw New Zealand make it to its first final. New Zealanders have taken great pride in the performance of our team as well as wholeheartedly embracing the opportunity to co-host one of the great events of world sport.
India’s passion for cricket has been on full display during this year’s World Cup. Indian fans turned cricket grounds in Australia and New Zealand into Antipodean versions of Eden Gardens or Wankhede Stadium.
It’s now often said that the Indian cricket team plays no away games, because no matter where they travel there are large crowds eagerly cheering. The tens of thousands of fans who have travelled to New Zealand added incredible colour to the event. A high proportion of those fans came from India. They have given much to my country. I hope they have left with good memories and that they will again visit New Zealand. It has been a privilege for me, as High Commissioner for New Zealand in India and a life-long cricket lover, to see both countries play so well during the last few weeks. It has also been remarkable to experience the depth and breadth of cricketing knowledge across Indian society. Very often, my own knowledge of New Zealand’s cricketing history is put to the test by Indians I meet who share my love of reminiscing about old matches.
The World Cup has also provided opportunities to reach out to former Indian players who were champions on the field and are now leaders off it. The images of Kapil Dev holding the cup aloft at Lords in 1983 marked the coming of age of India as a cricketing nation. I was delighted when Kapil accepted my invitation to meet New Zealand High Commission staff last year. Madan Lal was also generous with his time, as were members of the BCCI and others.
In qualifying for the final, 2015 has brought for New Zealand some of the breakthrough confidence that India experienced in 1983. Though the Blackcaps ultimately couldn’t defend the score that India defended in its first final, their other performances have meant that they are recognised as the best ODI team that my country has fielded.
Cheering both India and the Blackcaps during the Cup have been members of the large Indian diaspora that is an important and dynamic component of modern New Zealand. People of Indian descent now make up around 4 per cent of its population, which includes many Indian students and migrants choosing New Zealand as a destination for study or work. In New Zealand, they find a world-class tertiary education system and opportunities to work and live.
Diaspora communities also create a cradle for the development of people and enterprise contacts between our two countries. Indian tourists to New Zealand have increased substantially in the past 12 months. We want to see the trend grow, and for more New Zealanders to visit India.
The scenery that cricket fans enjoyed is also critical to another shared passion for Indians and Kiwis: film. Many Indian filmmakers have used New Zealand as a filming destination. They are working with a skilled industry that has a history of producing blockbusters, including the Lord of the Rings and Avatar .
The World Cup has also been a catalyst event for India and New Zealand in other ways, with new business opportunities uncovered. On March 12-13, I joined CII leaders in Auckland at an India-New Zealand Business Summit, which attracted many business leaders as well as New Zealand’s political leaders, including Prime Minister John Key.
Indian business representatives at the Summit saw first-hand how serious New Zealand is about India, and witnessed some of the ideas that our entrepreneurs have been working on. With one voice, those present at the Summit spoke about the need for New Zealand and India to do more business together. I welcome that and expect new initiatives to be taken forward in diverse areas from manufacturing and environmental services to agriculture and renewable energy.
Mr. Key also made clear that a priority for New Zealand remains completing the quality Free Trade Agreement envisaged when New Zealand and India began negotiating in 2010. It was pleasing that the views expressed by the business communities of both countries indicated that they were largely ready for the two governments to take more aggressive steps towards defining an FTA that could support higher levels of trade and investment.
In looking back on the World Cup, all true fans will reflect on it having featured the best that sport has to offer: skill, pressure, sportsmanship, talent, innovation with bat and ball, and fierce but fair competition. New Zealand did not win on March 29 but this year’s World Cup has delivered a positive legacy of opportunity and confidence that New Zealand and India can take forward, both on the field and off it.
(Grahame Morton is New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India.)
