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By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Apr. 9 – As winter finally throws off its chilly mantle and spring is well and truly sprung, thoughts turn to more outdoor pursuits. And this summer provides an extravaganza in sports, with the 2010 World Cup of Soccer and Commonwealth Games all taking place, let alone the usual plethora of various regional competitions. But once again, in our somewhat tongue in cheek look at China and India, it’s time to compare the two. For this weekend, the ten sporting things one can get in India that you can’t get in China. Next week we will reverse the situation…

Mini-turbans
Devout Sikh’s are amongst the world’s most hirsute of men, and many of them can field a decent bat as well. But with the religion banning the cutting of hair, many Sikhs roll it all up in a grand turban, with colors and types often depicting the areas of northwest India they originate from. When faced with cricket balls arriving at 130mph while standing at the wicket, wearing a full on turban when expected to smack sixes all over the ground and run like lightning for singles isn’t going to, er, cut it. Hence the evolution of the Patka, or mini turban. Now you don’t get too many of those at the Beijing Cricket Club. Patkas are also the primary reason why the Chinese wig making industry, the world’s largest, never got many orders from the Punjab.

Blonde cheerleaders
Delicate, demure and very modest, Chinese and Indian girls are simply far too bashful to stand about dancing semi-naked in support for their teams. However, that isn’t to say that the red-blooded Indian male doesn’t appreciate “a bit of skirt,” because he does. So they import them; from Australia mainly, but often under U.S. football cheerleading tutelage. There have been some mutterings of “debauchery” among the more conservative Indian groups, but for sure most of the cameramen following the IPL seem to have fallen in love with a particular girl. The numbers of Indian men attending IPL matches in Mumbai the past two weeks has been eerily equivalent to the numbers of Chinese men visiting karaoke bars in Shanghai, where such booty shaking seems restricted to underground evening venues. There are no such murky goings-on with cheerleaders in India, where it really is all about shimmying that groove thang out in the open in front of a hot blooded, mainly masculine crowd of 20,000 plus.

Commonwealth Games
Oh how pesky that Hong Kong New Territories 100 year lease has proven to be. The 2010 Commonwealth Games are set to commence in Delhi this coming October, that for sure will exclude China. For athletes who can take part, the Commonwealth Games are a useful competitive benchmark for the bigger prize – the summer Olympics, and serve as a two year in-between competition to assess performances against high value rivals. China used to compete, at least while Hong Kong was British. The territory fielded teams from 1934, making a final Commonwealth Games appearance in 1994, three years prior to the handover. Chinese athletes did represent Hong Kong, and in their appearances at the Games Hong Kong won a total of five gold, two silver and ten bronze medals. The golds came in that oh-so colonial sport of lawn bowls, and the others in pistol shooting and badminton. Hong Kong alas will not be present in October, and China has lost its only potential representative. A list of teams past and present who have or will compete in the Commonwealth Games can be found here.

An F1 car
While Shanghai hosts the Formula One Grand Prix each year, and does so on April 16-18, so Delhi will from 2011. However, India has something that China doesn’t have right now. A car.

Weird as it seems, China seems content, despite having purchased just about every bankrupt automaker on the planet, to sit back and watch other peoples’ cars whizz around and around in F1. India has “Force India,” all decked out in the colors of the Indian flag, meaning Indian F1 fans follow the event on TV as it moves around the global circuit. Are they any good? Well, they finished fifth in the last Grand Prix in Malaysia, so they’re not too shabby. And when supported with the likes of the cheerleader girls in Delhi next year, who knows what could happen? “Force Geely” doesn’t have quite the same ring.

Olympic champion rifle shooting
The current Olympic Champion in the 10 meter air rifle shooting event is Abhinav Bindra, from India. In fact, he’s the only individual Indian Olympic gold medal winner ever. By contrast, China won 50 more gold medals than India at the last Olympics, but then they were at home. Still, from little acorns, etc etc.

Winning at soccer
It’s a bit difficult, this one, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but surprisingly for such close neighbors, China and India haven’t crossed each other’s paths very often in competitive international soccer. In fact, the only time I can find a match was back in 1964, when India beat Hong Kong 3-1 in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup. Cheung Yiu Kwok put Hong Kong ahead at half time, but India replied with three goals in a match played at Bloomfield Road, Jaffna. India finished runners up to Israel that year, their best ever performance in international soccer. So, from what scant information I can find, it seems that when the two countries do come head to head in soccer, India tends to prevail over Chinese teams. However, those glory days for both nations are well behind them. In the current FIFA rankings, India are 132nd behind mighty Swaziland, Hong Kong lie one place behind the famous Maldives in 140th, while China are 84th, behind the all-conquering soccer giants of Albania. Thank goodness for ping pong. And cricket.

Tennis champions as bilateral peacemakers
Sania Mirza is considered India’s hottest tennis star, both in talent and in looks. Reaching the U.S. Masters third round in 2007, she also reached the Wimbledon doubles finals in 2003. But all hell has broken loose as she’s declared she’s about to get married to one of Pakistan’s best cricketers, Shoab Malik. Quite apart from all the juicy scandal involving a conveniently forgotten now fat wife, dubious telephone marriage arrangements, and nefarious accusations of match fixing. (You don’t want to read all about that do you? You do? OK here it all is in sordid detail.) Much has otherwise been made of the political implications of Pakistan’s cricketing poster boy marrying India’s tennis poster girl. Will peace and lovey-doveyness break out all over between the two national rivals? Well it’s a nice thought, but it’s a bit like imagining the Dalai Lama going off hand in hand with Hu Jintao for a few beers and a night out at Maggie’s bar. Still, we wish them, and Indo-Pak bilateral relations, well.

Horse racing
The Sport of Kings, yet in China, it is only really available in Hong Kong and Macau. Racing tracks all over the country were destroyed after the communists took over as the sport was considered decadent. We just think Mao never had any luck at the bookies. Remnants of it can be seen though – People’s Square in Shanghai is the site of the old Shanghai Jockey Club and Race Course, and the Clock Tower used to be part of the main grandstand. That’s why the park, when viewed from above, is oval shaped. The statue of Eric Moller’s best horse can still be seen in the garden of the Moller Villa on Shaanxi Road. On race days and the big annual events, the Park Hotel on Nanjing West Road was the place to stay. While arguments about the perils of bringing back a gambling enterprise still mean horse racing is largely off limits in China, in India it’s very much alive. Trophies such as the grandly named “The Maharaja Sir Harisinghji Trophy” (April 18th, Mumbai) still take place, and the nation is stuffed full of jockey clubs where the great and the gambling all reconvene to lay bets and enjoy a good steeplechase. A Passage to India still lives on, and thoroughbreds are as highly prized as ever. To see what China is missing, check out the Royal Western India Turf Club.

The world’s oldest golf club (outside Great Britain)
India also boasts the world’s oldest golf club outside of Great Britain. The Royal Calcutta Golf Club was established in 1829, some 60 years before any courses existed elsewhere in the United States or Europe.

Today, there are over 160 golf clubs in India, including the world’s highest 18-hole golf course at Gulmarg, Kashmir (altitude 2,700 meters). The world’s highest 9-hole golf course is the Gyamchchona golf course that lies at a height of 4968 meters in the lap of the Kanchenjunga, the third highest Himalayan peak. Till the 1950s, golf clubs in India were affiliated to the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, which followed the rules of St. Andrews in Scotland. In December 1955, a group of golfers got together to form the Indian Golf Union as the controlling body for the game. By contrast, the first golf course in the People’s Republic of China opened in 1984, but by the end of 2009 there were roughly 600 in the country. Jack Nicklaus, who by late 2009 had either designed or had plans to design 35 courses in China, claimed in October of that year that China had plans to build 1,400 public courses in the next five years (currently, only a small number of China’s courses are public). A Chinese golf industry insider called Nicklaus’ claim “bullshit.” For the last several years, development of new golf courses has been officially banned, but the number of courses has nonetheless tripled since 2004; the “ban” has been easily evaded with the government’s tacit approval simply by not mentioning golf in any development plans. But for golf with elegance, history, and in some of the most amazing locations with the best club houses, India wins by a birdie.

A national league
It’s not easy to establish a truly national league that permeates every aspect of a nation’s life, social conversations and behavior. Yet India has done just that with its Indian Premier League. With the event now in its third year, it unites the nation in a manner never seen in China. Eight regional teams (ten from next year) battle it out to become the national champions. Teams are now bought and sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, advertising revenues are flooding in, TV viewers are skyrocketing and nearly every game is a sellout. China hasn’t really been able to accomplish any national league of merit, the Chinese Premier Soccer league is corrupt, and there is nothing to unite the country behind a single sport in the manner that India has managed to achieve. The reasons may be part political and wariness of encouraging regional allegiances above national ones, but really, for a national sporting event in full flow, it is hard to beat the Indian IPL right now, anywhere. India’s regional identities are more ingrained than China’s, and it shows in the passionate local support for their teams.

Related Reading: The Complete “Ten Things” Series
Ten Things in India You Can’t Get in China
Ten Things in China You Can’t Get in India
Ten Marvelous Things You Can Get in India You Can’t Get in China
Ten Marvelous Things You Can Get in China You Can’t Get in India
Ten Naughty Things You Can Get in India You Can’t Get in China
Ten Naughty Things You Can Get in China You Can’t Get in India