Though Team India failed at the semifinal hurdle, an Indian-origin girl rocked the concluding ceremony of the T20 World Cup final at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday.
The organisers had invited the 13-year-old singer Janaki Easwar to perform on stage. She sang “We Can Get Together” with another Zimbabwean-born Australian singer, Thndo Sikwila and ICEHOUSE’s lead singer Iva Davies.
Janaki was born in Melbourne in 2009 to Indian parents-Anoop and Divya, who migrated to Australia (from Kerala) in 2007.
She is a year 8 student. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think our daughter would be performing at the Opening ceremony of a world cup tournament. This is Janaki’s first experience on a cricket ground and she was very excited”, her father Anoop Divakaran said over the telephone from Melbourne on Monday.
The family is cricket-loving. “We are huge cricket fans. I grew up in Sachin’s era. I was writing my 10th standard board exam when the 1996 world cup happened. India lost in the Semi finals the day before my maths exam. Sachin stepping out of his crease and sending Shane Warne out of the park in Sharjah (the famous desert storm) is my best cricketing memory. I have watched the 2015 World Cup Quarter finals at MCG, and many other games”.
Neither India nor Australia could reach the final. “If India was playing the finals, there is absolutely no doubt that MCG would have been a sea of blue. games where India played drew the largest crown throughout the tournament.
