
SYDNEY: Harish Rao remembers vividly the first time he was introduced to Indian cricket. Son of late T Janardhan Rao, a doctor, who moved to Australia from Chennai in 1968, Harish was not even a teenager when he met the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, EAS Prasanna, S Venkataraghavan in the late 1970s when the Indian team toured Down Under. Things were different back then.
The Indian population was not as big as it is right now. The players used to oblige invitations from Indian families who they knew or were of some kind of influence. Players and fan used to mingle much more freely. Harish still remembers when his father used to invite players to his house. He used to double up as a doctor for the team as well.
“My father was a doctor and in those times, the Indian team did not have one travelling with them. So he ended up helping them if they had any problem,” Harish tells this daily. “Those days there were foreign exchange restrictions. My father used to organise dinners, the team used to go to different people’s houses, even arrange transportation. I’ve been involved with the Indian cricket team, at least, from those early days right through till about when Sachin Tendulkar came and played in Australia.”
Harish was there when the Indian team featuring Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, L Sivaramakrishnan and others won the World Championship of Cricket Down Under in 1985. He remembers interacting with almost every single squad member who helped India beat Pakistan to win the final. That was almost four decades ago.
An administrator now
Today, Harish is a non-executive director on the board of Cricket Victoria. In fact, he is believed to be the first Indian-Australian to be appointed on the board of Cricket Victoria in its almost 150-year history. It’s been close two years since Harish took charge and for him, it’s been an ”enlightening experience” so far.
While Harish did play cricket at school-level, he couldn’t continue because of other commitments and took his journey towards commerce and business. He went to become an Indian Australian Business leader, who founded the Australia India Chamber of Commerce, and was a past board member of the Australia India Institute before coming back to his cricketing roots. The turning point of that happening was the India versus Pakistan 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Virat Kohli played an sensational innings as India beat Pakistan in a last-ball thriller with 90,293 fans cheering on.
Witnessing the contest and the atmosphere, Cricket Victoria board felt the need to get the Indian community involved. They reached out to Harish to join the board and since then, it’s been a quite a bit of a journey for him. “I’ve been involved in the Australia-India business relationship over many years, but not from a cricketing point of view. I think what the Cricket Victoria Board was keen to do was to try and build upon the momentum that’s happened within the Australia-India relationship and look at it from the sports angle, especially cricket. Having me as part of that helps them be able to build that profile with the Australia-India relationship and the Indian diaspora here in Victoria,” Harish explains.
“There’s been a huge momentum in the Australia-India relationship over the last few years, especially after the signing of the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. That has filtered through to many different aspects of the relationship. We’ve set up the Melbourne Cricket Academy in India. It’s a joint venture with the Khelomore Group in Mumbai. That’s the first franchise, but there will be other franchises around the country as time progresses,” he adds.
Building bridges
While reconnecting with cricket is about building relationships between the two countries, for Harish, it is also about continuing his familial relationship with the sport going back to the early 1900s. His great grandfather Bandi Sri Ramulu Naidu, who studied at Clifton College in England, led the Indians team in the Madras Presidency Match against the Europeans (Europeans living in India) in 1908-09.
This “Presidency Hindus” versus “Presidency Europeans” match was played at the now MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Harish’s grandfather, BS Badradi played first-class cricket for Madras, representing them in the Ranji Trophy alongside MJ Gopalan, CP Johnstone, and AG Ram Singh. And his father Janardhan played cricket for Madras Medical College before migrating to Australia. Although Janardhan passed away last year, he was there to see Harish join the Cricket Victoria board.
“He was very proud. He was actually in the Ranji squad in his time, though he didn’t play any matches, when he was at Madras Medical College. He was an avid cricket supporter. He was extremely proud when I told him that I’d been asked to be on the board at Cricket Victoria. I hope we can really use the opportunity that I’m there to actually grow cricket between Victoria and India into the future. But no, he was very proud of my appointment,” says Harish.
If the 2022 India versus Pakistan T20 WC match was the tipping point, the recent Boxing Day Test between India and Australia saw record-breaking crowds at the MCG. With 373, 691 fans attending across five days, it became the most attended Test match ever in Australia. “It was absolutely amazing. To go for five days and to have the largest crowd since Don Bradman’s team played, and that was a six-day Test, it’s amazing.”
"The support of people flew in from all over the world, not just from India, they flew in from the US and from the UK as well. I think it just reinforces that Melbourne is the sporting capital of Australia and cricket, the home of cricket is certainly here in Melbourne. I'm very keen to see how I can build on the momentum that's already been created. It's been very exciting because at the moment, I'm the only person of South Asian origin on any cricket board anywhere in Australia. I think that'll change over time. I'm very honoured and privileged to have been asked,” Harish signed off.