Partisan

"Who do you support?", I ask my sons as they sit with their eyes glued to the screen. England is playing India in the first test match of the series in the city of my birth, Chennai. They have been up since the crack of dawn for the second day running to watch this test match and I suspect support is firmly divided down the middle. The visitors are at 394 for 4 with English captain Joe Root looking comfortably set for a double century.

The stands are painfully bereft of fans and every intermittent shot of the city reminds me of its casual verdancy and an abundance of memories that it holds which words cannot do justice to. "England or India?", I repeat my question which they dodge rather adeptly.

I recognise that it is an unfair question to pose to children of immigrants but this is the ultimate litmus test. However, this is no ordinary Olympic sport. This is cricket, the stuff of religion, and whom you root for (ha!) is crucial.

I pick the phone up to my cricket-mad father in India who many years ago played for the state junior team and once flew all the way to Australia to watch the Boxing day test match. He tells me he's not watching the match as India is being thrashed by their former colonial masters (that too on home turf is particularly hurtful). I update him with the score and he groans.

"Hmm?", I ask my sons once more in a final bid to get them to commit to an answer. "We are neutral", says my firstborn tactfully. England has just scored a single and Joe Root inches closer to a magical 200. A quiet cheer emerges from the English corner on the sofa.