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If you want a warm welcome in India, it helps to turn up with Sachin Tendulkar.
Merely being in the presence of the cricketing legend is enough to be a superstar in the subcontinent.
Tony Abbott found this out on Thursday, when the prime minister dropped in at a children’s cricket clinic in downtown Mumbai flanked by the great Indian batsman.
The children went into overdrive when the pair started handing out signed bats and posing for pictures.
Former Test players Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee, who moments earlier had been the centre of attention as they offered the children tips, were relegated to the sidelines.
But the Australian sporting greats were on hand to help Abbott employ the “cricket diplomacy” that is always on display during official visits to India.
Abbott announced that a new film starring Lee and the Bollywood sensation Tannishtha Chatterjee would begin production in Sydney in October.
The actress will play a recently divorced Indian mother trying to find her feet in Australia, and Lee will star as the local heart-throb.
Unindian will be the first project of the Australia India Film Fund, established last year to invest in Australian movies with an Indian theme.
There are also unconfirmed reports that a collection of Don Bradman memorabilia could soon tour India.
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