WESTERN Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has fully endorsed the club’s exploration of playing a historic AFL match in India.
After AFL boss Andrew Dillon’s trip to India in January, the Bulldogs are eager to tap into the most populated country in the world, closing in on 1.5 billion people.
Selling home matches is often a divisive topic, but Beveridge is behind the ambitious push, even if it means moving a game from Marvel Stadium.
The Dogs have also sold home games to Ballarat, dating back to 2017.
“You’d probably have to time it maybe before a bye, that’d be ideal,” Beveridge said on Thursday about a potential game in India.
“When you think about the Indian passion for cricket, and then the groundswell of attention that’s coming towards our game.
“They’ve got the grounds to be able to pull it off too. It’d be pretty exciting.”
Long-serving Bulldogs chief executive Ameet Bains became the first person of Indian origin to be appointed to lead any elite sporting club in Australia back in 2017.
Bains wants to grow the Bulldogs’ multicultural fan base and tap into the strong and growing South Asian diaspora in Victoria.
“It’d be an exciting adventure, a huge performance challenge to be able to go over there, play, come back, and either side of that be able to win and stay on top of things,” Beveridge said.
“It’d be an exciting opportunity if it happens in the future.
“We feel like we’ve got a good relationship with the Indian community and that we’d be interested if there was a game that was going to be organised over there, which may or may not happen.
“The actual absolute dedication to what we do with our community foundation is the main thing and the possibility of a game is just secondary.”
The AFL has previously played home and away games overseas in New Zealand (2013-15) and China (2017-19).
Pre-season or exhibition games have also been held before in London and South Africa.
