WTC Opportunity to Cement Relationship with India

OPINION: After the New Zealand victory, social media in India hummed with praise for the way the Kiwis conducted themselves. Our cricketers have done us proud, and it is now up to our politicians to seize this opportunity to cement New Zealand’s relationship with India based on mutual experience and respect. Jerry Clode explains why this is a historic moment to engage India. 

As Ross Taylor powers a four off his pads, New Zealand become the inaugural World Test Champions (WTC).  Black Caps’ players and fans back home, erupt in sleep-deprived celebration.

On the other side of the coin, cameras immediately pan to the dejected face of Indian captain, Virat Kohli.  Like France beating the All Blacks, his mind shifts to the immediate fallout back home.  In India, Twitter explodes with calls for his sacking as captain.

Like Lionel Messi in soccer, Kohli shoulders the dreams and expectations of a nation of over a billion fans – a blessing, and an enormous level of pressure.

Kohli is not just the captain and elite batsman of Team India.  He is the poster boy of India’s supreme position in world cricket.   A personal embodiment of the confidence and bravado of the Indian Premier League – the shorter form of cricket, that means India is the financial engine of the game.

Married to Bollywood actress, Anushka Sharma, Kohli’s influence in India is enormous.  Like David Beckham, he endorses everything from skincare, scooters, insurance, to luxury watches.  His pompadour hairstyle is ubiquitous amongst Indian young men.

Losing to New Zealand is a big deal.  Like Kiwis trying to explain to foreigners that “rugby is a religion here” after an All Blacks loss, India takes sport worship to a whole other level.

Cricket is literally everywhere in India, parks and public spaces are jam-packed with multiple overlapping games, being fought out with the same intensity of a test match.

Jump in a cab in Mumbai, and the driver will joyfully spark up a debate on who is the “greatest cricketer ever”. I always argue for Sir Richard Hadlee but end up agreeing on local legend Sachin Tendulkar to get a more agreeable fare.

One of India’s most iconic films, Lagaan, tells the story of villagers fighting unfair land taxes in a one-off cricket match against the British.  Over almost four hours, the film sings and dances the metaphor that cricket broke the shackles of colonial oppression making the modern, independent nation of India today.

Realising the impact of their win on their Indian opponents, the Black Caps were mindfully gracious.  Captured best in a bromantic post-game hug between captains Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli.   The mutual respect was clear to see throughout the tense six days of play.

Absent were sledging or intimating tactics, made famous by our friends across the ditch.  During some of the tensest moments during the game, Kiwi and Indian players are seen having a laugh together, even offering levels of mutual encouragement.

After the New Zealand victory, social media in India hummed with praise for the way the Kiwis conducted themselves.  A sense that the pain of losing was somewhat relieved by the fact the “good guys” and genuine friends of India had won.

Now for the diplomacy 

Our cricketers have done us proud; it is now up to our politicians to seize this opportunity to cement New Zealand’s relationship with India based on mutual experience and respect.   At a time when India is fighting the terrifying daily effects of the pandemic, some empathetic sports diplomacy seems well placed. 

India’s consistent economic growth since 1990s will create the largest middle class in the world by 2035.  Yes, even larger than China’s.

A unique generation of middle-class consumers which, according to the OECD, will have an average age of merely thirty-two. This compares to an average age of the low forties in China, and  significantly older in mature economies such as the United States and the UK.

New Zealand companies have already started to leverage cricket to connect with Indian consumers.  Education New Zealand has partnered with Stephen Fleming - former Black Caps skipper and now coach of the IPL team, the Chennai SuperKings - to work as a brand ambassador throughout India.  Hawkes Bay apple exporter Rockit have similarly signed Kane Williamson as an inspiring way to connect with India’s burgeoning number of grocery shoppers.

Fonterra, our largest dairy exporter, forecasts India’s demand for dairy in the next seven years, will be seven times that of China.  As part of a joint venture, Fonterra developed the Dreamery brand for India. The brand includes Tetra Pak flavoured milk drinks, yoghurt and skim milk at double the price of local equivalents.  Fonterra is targeting young professionals and families with a focus on quality and no-compromise nutrition.

Beyond physical goods, our future relationship with India is vital to both education and tourism.

As the Indian economy develops, the demand for expertise in management and technology creates a steadily increasing stream of graduate students to our universities.  The full value of these yearly cohorts will be realised when NZ-educated Indians return home to India to be entrepreneurs themselves, creating huge future opportunities for our labour-thirsty technology sector.

In 2019 alone, New Zealand universities saw a 51 percent increase in the number of students from India.  Alongside China, India already makes up the largest source of international students in New Zealand.

Indian tourists also tick some serious boxes for New Zealand.  Their preference to travel internationally in our autumn and spring shoulder seasons, means Indian tourists arrive when local businesses are usually twiddling their thumbs.  Even better, due to their younger age, Tourism New Zealand describes Indian visitors as having a “propensity to engage in a high number of activities” – that is, they represent high value. 

While rightly celebrating the achievements of the Black Caps, we should be also be seeing the team as a vehicle to take our relationship with India to the next level.  Our continued expectations that we can broker trade deals with old friends, like the UK and Australia, is increasingly self-defeating.

India will most certainly become a future economic superpower.  The fact that our two nations have been ‘joined at hip’ for six days fighting for the same historical first, is too big an advantage to let slide.  

Especially at a time when we are debating greater export diversity.  Sleep deprivation would not excuse missing out on leveraging the longer-term value of this epic cricket match.

Jerry Clode is Founder of strategic consultancy The Solution, and a Teaching Fellow in the School of Business, Otago University