Kolkata: “The jersey may belong to another country but on hearing the name, you realise that he is from our country.” That, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, gives you slight happiness. “Dil ki kisi kone mein ek halki si khushi aati hain (a part of my heart feels happy),” Modi said in Sunday’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ where he referenced the number of players of Indian origin in the men’s T20 World Cup.
Modi spoke of how Dilpreet Bajwa, who had played age-specific cricket in Punjab, and 10 others in the team he led – including the youngest to score a century in the competition’s history, Yuvraj Samra – made “Canada and Bharat” proud. He mentioned Oman’s squad comprising players from different regions of India and the Indian-origin players on USA, Oman and UAE’s rosters.
After Canada, USA (9) had the most players with links to India followed by Oman and UAE (both seven). Italy had Jaspreet Singh who was born in Phagwara, Holland the off-spinner Aryan Dutt who had India’s top order in a bind.
“There are many such Indian-origin players who are bringing pride to their country,” said Modi.
Two more things happened on the day Modi spoke on his monthly radio programme. News of Asha Sharma’s appointment as CEO of the gaming division in Microsoft led by Satya Nadella became public. And pictures of ICC chair Jay Shah with Google CEO Sundar Pichai were released.
India loves celebrating the success of people with roots in this country. The Indian-ness of Sharma, Kalpana Chawla, Kamala Harris, Usha Vance, Pichai, Nadella, Bela Bajaria, Salman Rushdie, Siddhartha Mukherjee and Atul Gawande, among others, usually finds its way in conversations on them.
Sport is not an exception as cricketers Lisa Sthalekar, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sunil Narine and Hashim Amla have found out on earlier visits to India as has the Fijian footballer Roy Krishna.
Given cricket’s popularity – it is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British, the social theorist Ashis Nandy has said – Indian talent playing, as Modi said, “where his family is settled” is natural. Playing India at the Wankhede stadium was a full-circle moment, USA’s pacer Saurabh Netravalkar has said.
His story, and that of a many like him, is of a people finding a way to pursue what they love, often defying steep odds, and then living a World Cup dream. Explains why Harmeet Singh said he had sung the national anthems of both countries when USA and India lined up before the 2024 T20 World Cup group tie.
Expand the scope of this discussion and you could have Sarpreet Singh representing New Zealand at the 2026 football World Cup. The 27-year-old attacking midfielder represents Wellington Phoenix (also Krishna’s club before he turned out ATK Mohun Bagan in the Indian Super League) and his parents migrated from Punjab. Singh could be the second Indian-origin player at football’s showpiece event after former France midfielder Vikash Dhorasoo.
Born to an Indian mother with roots in Kolkata, Neil Taylor played as a full back for Wales in the 2016 European football championships where they made the semi-finals. Daniel Tanveer Batth is winding down a career as a centre-back at Derby County in the second tier of English football having previously captained Wolverhampton Wanderers. Yan Dhanda represented England under-17 and now the grandson of Punjabi immigrants is with the Scottish Premiership club Dundee.
In golf, Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala are doing what Modi said of the cricketers: “They step onto the field wearing the jersey of their country and wholeheartedly represent that country.” Both are in the top-100 of the PGA Tour, golf’s toughest gig. Bhatia, 24, has two PGA Tour wins and finished tied 16th at the $20,000,000 Phoenix Open which ended on Sunday. Theegala, 28, was tied 22nd in that tournament and has one PGA title.
Last June, Arshdeep Bains and Jujhar Khaira, along with coach Manny Malhotra, helped Canada’s Abbotsford Canucks script a miracle on ice and win the American Hockey League. Only five players of Indian descent have played in the National Hockey League with Malhotra having a 16-season career in the premier ice hockey competition in the USA and Canada.
There were three Indians and Venus Williams in the mixed doubles semi-final of the 2016 Olympics. Well, two Indians in Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna with Rajeev Ram on the other side of the net with Williams. Born to Raghav and Sushma Ram after they moved from India, Rajeev Ram, 41, won the silver that year and again in the men’s doubles in Paris in 2024. Three years prior, Samir Banerjee won the junior men’s title at Wimbledon.
Like Banerjee, Mia Bhuta, who has played for the USA in the 2022 under-17 women’s World Cup and whose father Vyom is from Rajkot, is at Stanford University now.
Go back a little further and you will have Mohini Bhardwaj and Raj Bhavsar, artistic gymnasts who made the podium for USA in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Go back more, to the 1984 games and there’s Alexi Grewal the first American to win the road cycling gold.
Flip the telescope and, with the right conditions, athletes of Indian origin can represent India. It has been happening in international football with Curacao and Cape Verde proof of how countries can qualify for the World Cup by tapping into diaspora talent. Closer home, Indonesia went further than they ever have by getting players of Dutch origin to represent the country in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Last year, a union sports ministry official said the 2008 policy of allowing only Indians to represent the country can be relooked at. “It can only be sports where Indian are not doing well,” an HT report on March 15 quoted an official as saying on condition of anonymity. Should that happen, maybe there will be another player who will sing both anthems at a mega sporting event.
