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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Rana Hussain

Watching Australian sport embrace Modi broke my heart – and showed inclusion is still just a strategy

Narendra Modi Australia AFL Cricket Australia India Andrew Dillon CA Cricket
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, India’s PM Narendra Modi and AFL CEO Andrew Dillon at the MCG
Anthony Albanese, Narendra Modi and AFL CEO Andrew Dillon at the MCG. ‘When sports tell us we belong, do they mean all of us?’ Rana Hussain writes. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

For most of my life, being Indian, Muslim, Australian and devoted to sport has never felt like a contradiction. Until now.

When I saw AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon and Australian cricket legend Steve Waugh smiling alongside Indian prime minister Narendra Modi last week, I wasn’t simply watching a diplomatic engagement. I was watching two institutions I love celebrate a leader whose name carries deep pain for many people like me.

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