Why is India-Australia rivalry bigger than Ashes?

First Cricket test between India and Australia got underway today at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Gripping tussle between the two teams for gaining upper hand at the end of first day's play has given enough indications of the fierce battle which going to be fought over the next one month.
Till the Nineties, India used to get very little opportunities to play against the Aussies. It is only after the 1996 world cup that Australian Cricket board started engaging Indian teams more frequently. The fact that BCCI started to emerge as the money spinner in world cricket surely is one of the reasons. Earlier, the Indian team used to get barely one series in a decade against Australia. But, the current series is 8th time India and Australia are battling it out for Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 1996.
Australia have largely dominated in the history of world cricket although there have been intermittent spells of other nations enjoying supremacy. Like West Indies in the seventies and South Africans for a brief period in late sixties. In last twenty years though, successive Australian teams have built an aura of invincibility around themselves.
After the Packer era, the Australian team was at the lowest ebb with simultaneous retirements of Chappell brothers, pace duo of Lillee and Thomson and Rodney Marsh. The team rebuilding exercise started under Allan border and a seemingly unending stream of talented Cricketers like Mark Taylor, Waugh brothers, Ponting, Warne and McGrath made Australian outfit the best in the world.
Add to this the fact that other teams around the world lacked the quality to match them. West Indies has slowly faded away with Walsh and Ambrose being their last world class performers. English teams lacked the quality of Botham, Willis and Gower although Michel Vaughan pulled off an inspired upset in 2005 Ashes series. Pakistanis always are too unpredictable to combat team like Aussies. Moreover with Akram and Waqar gone it has been reduced to toothless tiger.
The only team that has dared to have an eyeball to eyeball contact with the Aussies has been India. Australians are known to resort to sledging to soften up the opposition players, but continue to brag about their spirit of the game. Indians started replying first by their on field performances and of late by matching them in verbal duals. One can trace the roots of India-Australia rivalry back to 1981-82 series in which Sandip Patil hammered Lilee, Thommo and Poscoe to all parts of WACA and then injured Kapil, having painkiller injections to bowl, skittled mighty Kangaroo batting line up inside hundred to pull off a dramatic win.
The all conquering Aussie team of Nineties could not master Indian pitches. The likes of Warne, McGrath, Waugh brothers could get very little success. So much so that the visuals of Sachin Tendulkar hoisting him out of the ground started haunting Shane Warne. Ricky Ponting’s pathetic run of scores in India is well known (He has put the record straight today though!)
What pinched the Australians most was the famous Calcutta test defeat in 2001. The Indians broke their record winning streak even after following on after more than 300 runs in deficit in the first innings. New Heroes in the form of Harbhajan, Dravid and Laxman emerged for India. Steve Waugh’s desire to conquer the ‘final frontier’ remained unfulfilled. In fact, Waugh barely escaped with a draw against India (2003-04) in his last series at home.
Even though the Aussies did manage to beat India in India in 2005, India’s return visit earlier this year has proved to one of the most controversial series in the history of test cricket. The ugly incidences involving Symonds, Harbhajan and Hayden, Kumble’s allegation that Aussies violated spirit of the game, BCCI using its financial clout to get the umpire removed. All this along with the fact that India once again broke its winning streak of 16 tests and convincingly winning tri-series has humiliated the Aussie players and they are out to avenge their humiliation.
Indian team on the other hand is facing a period of transition. The last decade has been a golden era for Indian Cricket both in terms of its financial importance and the quality of Cricketers. Four world class middle order batsmen ( Dravid, Sachin, Layman and Ganguly ), a most explosive opener ( Sehwag ), two world class spinners ( Kumble and Harbhajan ) – so many superstars playing together is a rarity. But the senior pros are at the twilight of their glittering career. Hence it is only natural that they want to go out on high. What better occasion to have their swansong than beating Australia in their last assignment?
With both teams having huge incentives to do their best, at least the series is surely bigger than the Ashes. The entire cricketing world is keen to know which one come on top. Let us enjoy enthralling Cricket over the next one month. May the best team win!