When The Lights Went Out

SP on TGC's call to leave India after shit got real

“What do you think about India and Pakistan never playing each other again?” came the question from somewhere in the audience, lights too bright on-stage for Higgos and I to make out our interlocutor. It was Monday night in Mumbai, the second live show on our tour of India which was scheduled to take in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurugram (greater Delhi, formerly Gurgaon). We were getting towards the end of our 90 minute performance, which includes a section where take questions from the audience. Like most of our stuff, the tone of the questions are typically light and fun; we’ll answer sarcastically, or with a kind of performative combativeness. We’re only ever earnest if pushed.

There were a few audience giggles in response to the question and I was a bit confused, so I sought to clarify what the guy meant. I knew Guatam Gambhir had said something to this effect, but Guatam’s going to Guatam. “Do you mean no chance of bilateral cricket? They’ll still have World Cups every … 6-12 months I think it is.” Standard pedestrian stuff from me.

“No,” he cut in. “There will be no more cricket because Pakistan as a state will cease to exist,” he said assuredly. Cease to exist. Hard to see comedy in that. We could immediately tell it wasn’t a bit. He was serious. Guffaws, groans, ooh’s and ahh’s followed from the 700-strong audience. “How the fuck do we answer that?” I think I said, faux-aggression masking apprehension. Higgos and I then just started shaking our heads nervously. Some people laughed. But there were mainly murmurs and exasperated comments between people. I looked over to our agent in India, Shiv, I could see him mouthing “Oh My God”. There was a temptation to lean back and jokingly say, “yeah actually I have a couple of thoughts as a white man from Australia…” but even that felt a bit too insensitive and easily open to misinterpretation. We just moved on to the next question.

I’m writing this from Mumbai Airport at Friday midday IST, where we’ve scrambled a flight back to Melbourne via Abu Dhabi. We were meant to fly to Delhi today for more live shows, but after last night’s action in Dharamsala – where the India-Pakistan conflict effectively visited itself upon the cricket – we made the call to cancel and get home. Speaking to players and commentators privately, we know many are keen to do the same. As I write this, news has broken that the IPL has been suspended. Sources have told us it’s looking to resume in September.

I was watching on TV last night, bags packed for an early start to Delhi, when I noticed the lights going out at Dharamsala. I had the millennial double screen going – laptop foreground, TV background. 15 minutes later, ESPN Cricinfo was reporting the game was called off.

Source: Cricinfo on X

“That’s weird,” I thought. Surely they’d just fix the lights? Meanwhile, the host broadcaster, Star Sports, ran a lower-third graphic saying “Game delayed due to tech failure”. They continued to run segments focused on Punjab’s playoff chances, then RCB’s playoff chances, for another 20 minutes before announcing the game had been abandoned due to a “power outage”. That was the official line, which was repeated by CricBuzz too.

What exactly had happened? Three floodlights had gone out, one had remained. Did they lose power, or was the power dimmed so as to evacuate people? There had been conjecture ahead of the game about whether or not the game should have taken place at all in Dharamsala. In their wisdom, they had decided to do so. So to call it off ten overs in begged the question: what had changed? That there was a divergence between explanations for the abandonment of the game from serious media outlets only fulled angst.

It was around 10pm IST by now, and we had a call to make. I spoke with our tour promoters, the excellent, local DeadAnt group, and was apprehensive about appearing a dramatic Westerner. Maybe they’d say “don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.” We’re often encouraged to roll our sleeves up a bit here, probably with good reason. I needn’t have worried. They too expressed concerns about flying further north to Delhi, and emphasised that safety be prioritised.

Before the lights went out in Dharamsala, we were happy to crack on with our tour. Because while we knew there were growing tensions, conflict appeared isolated to the border. Reports were of “surgical strikes”, of a type of contained precision. Dr Shashi Tharoor emphasised India’s restraint. The problem was once the lights went out mid-game, that sense of control dissipated. The conflict had clearly made its way to the cricket, news quickly emerged about a snap meeting to decide the viability of continuing the competition, and at that moment it felt very unwise to fly closer to it - to Delhi in India’s north - to host cricket comedy shows. We were also due to go to Delhi v Gujarat - the idea of entering a cricket ground after this wasn’t appealing. You can imagine how the players, staff and their families feel.

To be honest, there was no sign of tension at Mumbai Airport this morning, 6am IST. Yes, men were there in army kit, machine guns etc, but that’s standard. However, we did run into trouble trying to check-in. Our names weren’t on the flights that we booked the night prior. Removing ourselves from the queue and getting through to Qantas on the phone 30 minutes later, we learned they couldn’t clear payments in rupees in time for the first flight out. Bizarre stuff. We had earlier learned that Qantas had started cancelling flights out of Delhi. While it provided some solace that we’d made the right decision, it also left us keen to get out, given that airports might start to get quite hectic, especially if things further escalate. The Hindustan Times had reported that 90 flights had been cancelled in Delhi on Thursday.

We spent the next hour trying to find something out of Mumbai, and eventually jagged one via the UAE. Decent layover, but it’s the soonest we can make it home so we’re grateful to have it.

It’s worth pointing out that we do not feel like we’re fleeing a hugely dangerous place right now. When we wrote our announcement, our Indian counterparts kindly asked we remove reference to safety, to which we obliged as we understood where they were coming from. That said, Twitter and TV is loaded with images of fire, nightskies, and a decent level of general warmongering.

I mentioned that live show question to highlight the different feelings people have here. The reactions from the audience, allied with our entire experience here, backs up my sense that this gentleman’s view isn’t the popular one. And while you can’t see too much evidence of an escalating conflict in the big cities, there is an apprehension under the surface. Most people in India haven’t experienced something like this, and when news filtered through about India’s retaliatory strikes via Operation Sindoor, that apprehension went up a notch. We’ve had a great time in India and are very grateful for the hospitality here, but I’m also grateful to be sitting on a plane on the runway here in Mumbai next to Higgos and Charlie. We’re grateful to be able to come home.

Our tour team in India: DeadAnt x Burman Sports x TGC