Richmond vs GWS Match in India

[Beaussie]

Exciting development.

GWS planning to play exhibition match in India
Neil Cordy
The Daily Telegraph

THEY are yet to conquer western Sydney, but already the GWS Giants are setting their sights further afield with plans to play an exhibition match in India next year.

Just how the world's second most populous nation takes to Australia's most popular football code remains to be seen, but Kevin Sheedy is willing to give anything a go once.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Giants have accepted an offer from the Richmond Tigers to play an exhibition match in Mumbai in late January or early February next year.

The match is seen as a way to repair Melbourne's troubled relationship with India after last year's rash of assaults on students.

But the Giants are looking at it as an opportunity to snare new fans and even players.

"We've got two kids in our academy from Indian heritage and you only needed to be in the crowd at ANZ Stadium for the Twenty20 international to see what sort of an atmosphere the Indian crowd can create," Giants boss David Matthews said.

The fixture is likely to be played at Mumbai's DY Patel Stadium, a state-of-the-art 60,000 seater that hosts cricket's Indian Premier League.

GWS commercial manager and former Test cricketer Gavin Roberton has strong ties to western Sydney's Indian community, while Giants co-captain Phil Davis ran into cricket great Sachin Tendulkar in Adelaide recently, with the aim of getting the Little Master on board.

Tigers chief executive Brendan Gale had floated the Indian match some time ago, but struggled to find a club to take up the challenge. Giants coach Kevin Sheedy, whose plans for world domination took the club on a scouting mission to Czech Republic last year, answered the call.

"If teams are a chance of winning a premiership I can understand their reluctance to travel such a distance to play a match because it can interfere with their preparation but we just need to play games," Sheedy said. "We've already expanded nationally with our game - now it's time to grow it internationally."

Sheedy has been one of the game's leading voices when it comes to expansion and has already expressed a strong desire for the Giants to play the opening game of the 2013 AFL season in China.

Sheedy, who played in four premierships with Richmond in the 1960s and 1970s, is a former district cricketer in Melbourne and believes the close cricketing ties between the countries will help Aussie rules gain a foothold on the subcontinent.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6282013454