By IANS
New Delhi : The controversy in the second cricket Test between India and Australia at Sydney will affect people-to-people ties, said Australia’s envoy to India John McCarthy.
“Government-to-government (level) it does not matter, but it certainly affects people-to-people ties,” McCarthy told IANS here.
He said there was limited role for the governments in such a scenario but they had done some quiet talking behind the scenes. “We talked to the cricket authorities and asked them (to) resolve the issue,” said the envoy.
The announcement by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to continue the tour Tuesday was a welcome sign to resolve the issue, he noted.
The chairman of the Australian-India Business Council, Neville Joseph Roach, who was also awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award, said the bitterness on the cricketing field would not influence business deals.
“The outrage felt by Indians is shared by Indian origin people in Australia,” he said, adding that there was a lot of sympathy for the Indian team in that country.
“The Australians were too competitive… Their behaviour is the main issue,” added Roach.