Game spinner: Monty Panesar bowling for England

British Indians to support England

When Norman Tebbit spoke of the “cricket test” back in 1990, the Tory politician merely wanted Indians settled in Britain to support England, their adopted country, rather than India in matches between the two countries.

“A large proportion of Britain’s Asian population fails to pass the cricket test,” he lamented. “Which side do they cheer for? It’s an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?”

What Tebbit could not have conceived of was that one day there would come forth an Indian bowler who would get Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket cheaply in both innings of a Test match and help England triumph over India.

Monty Panesar’s role in spinning England to victory in the second Test in Mumbai with match figures of 11 wickets for 210 runs is probably the best thing to have happened to Indians in Britain for a very long time.

Monty’s remarkable performance will have two profound consequences: it will convince young Indians born and brought up in the UK that their loyalty should be with England — even during England-India Test matches.

The other is that Indians will be embraced by the rest of the population as being an integral part of British society.

This had already started to happen: in England-Germany football matches, for example, Indians support England, anyway. But there was a psychological barrier to climb during England-India cricket matches. Monty’s performance will probably be seen in retrospect as a landmark marking the moment when Indians were accepted as full members of society.

Indians have contributed to Britain in many fields, ranging from business to medicine, art and culture. But sporting achievement makes an emotional connection that almost nothing else does.

Older Indians still set their alarm clocks so that they get up well before dawn to catch the start of play. The heart is impossible to control and, Monty or no Monty, theirs will always be with India.

However, many others will be moved by the sheer joy on Monty’s face as he pushed India over the precipice. Monty has now made it perfectly acceptable for Indians to consider themselves not only as British but possibly also English.

Isn’t all this rather an exaggerated claim to make for what was just a game of cricket?

The truth is the Mumbai Test was more of a game changer. After all, one should not underestimate the power of sport and cricket especially to influence the relationship between Indians and England.

Give & take

The relationship between British Indian tycoons and politicians in India is a happy one — it’s one of give and take.

The tycoons give, the Indian politicians take.

Last week the wife of such a tycoon based in London told me of an occasion when her husband received a friendly call from an important Indian leader when he was visiting Delhi.

“Come and take a cup of tea with me,” said the politician sweetly.

Against his better judgement the tycoon acquiesced, and was introduced by the politician to his daughter-in-law and his grandson whom he wanted to send to England for further studies.

“Hope you can take care of him when he is in London,” said the politician with a kindly smile.

“Of course,” gushed the Indian businessman from London, relieved at having escaped so easily. “You have my number — I will be only too happy to take care of him. He should think of us as family.”

Shortly after returning to London, the tycoon received a letter from the politician on official headed notepaper.

“It said that the cost of his grandson’s education would be £29,000 for three years,” the tycoon’s wife told me. “It was shameless.”

Her husband decided not to respond “because even a rejection could have been interpreted as ‘an attempt to bribe a politician’”.

She added: “In the end, another businessman, who had a number of projects coming up in India, stepped in and said, ‘Here, let me take care of this.’”

See Calcutta

Travel destination: Victoria Memorial

People in Calcutta are not spotting the potential in tourist traffic. For example, a package offered by a British travel company that takes in the Mumbai and Calcutta Test matches with tours of the two cities is “sold out”.

The Calcutta leg, from December 4-10, sounds inviting.

“Calcutta... is referred to as the intellectual capital of the country,” visitors are informed. “Some of the best-built buildings in India are the colonial buildings in Calcutta.”

Sightseeing includes the flower market, a boat ride down the Hooghly river and a tour of the Victoria Memorial.

“Later visit the temple dedicated to Kali,” visitors are urged. “Drive past Fort William, the Dalhousie Square and the Writers’ Buildings. Also visit the Missionaries of Charity, the home of the late Mother Teresa. Start with an early morning breakfast and a heart-warming lecture from a leading activist, ‘Why it is always better to oppose than to govern’, proceed to Lalbazar for fish curry with cartoonists, and round off a fun day by making a pilgrimage to Singur to lay flowers.”

Ok, I may have made up one or two things but the point is those entering the travel trade have the chance to do good business by being endlessly creative.

Spin doctor

Calcutta boy: Andy Varma

Chakra, the new restaurant run by the Varma brothers, Andy and Arjun, from Calcutta, won the title of Best Newcomer at the British Curry Awards held in London last week.

And deservedly, too.

The restaurant was also voted into the Top 8 Best Indian Restaurants in the UK in the Tatler 2012 Restaurant Awards earlier this year.

Who’s who

Publisher Jasbir Singh Sachar is bringing out his new Who’s Who of Asians in Britain on December 10 — it will be the 25th edition.

The first edition came out in 1975 with 200 entries. Last year’s edition had over 3,000 names.

Sachar says that the Asians “worked hard in factories, sold newspapers in their cornershops and were not shy of doing menial jobs for survival. They started contributing to the economic, political, religious and social activities of their host country. But there was very little done to recognise them or their achievements.”

This is why he published his first Who’s Who 37 years ago.

Tittle tattle

For london: Boris Johnson with Kajol

Boris Johnson has learnt the order of precedence in India. On a flight from Hyderabad to Mumbai he couldn’t be upgraded from economy because all business class seats had been taken by Kajol and her entourage.

There were no hard feelings, with the mayor of London and the Bollywood actress sharing a joke as they waited for the bus to take them to the airport terminal after landing in Mumbai.

“It started with people whispering around me and I didn’t realise how wonderfully important Kajol was,” said Boris. “I was too embarrassed and I didn’t want to introduce myself but then I met her on the bus on the way to the terminal and she was very nice. The key thing is that Kajol loves working in London and she does a huge number of movies in London. She is just one example of the way India and London can contribute to produce great movies.”