If we want better trade with India we'd better stop talking about cricket!

This is a story that Australian diplomats are now coming to terms with. Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Penny Wensley, said to a business audience last year: “Australia and India do not know enough about the contemporary reality of each other…the larger picture is not in focus. It is blurred by outdated impressions, simplistic stereotypes and assumptions.”

Last week, a contingent of senior Australian officials, including the head of the foreign affairs department, met with their Indian counterparts to discuss weighty issues of state. No details of this so-called “strategic dialogue” were released to the media.

But you can bet that cricket was not on the agenda, underlining the yawning gulf between what officials discuss, and the topics that consume average Indians and Australians.

So, to help further mutual understanding, here are some suggestions:

First, if sport must be used as a medium to get to know each other, Australia should send the Socceroos, or better, the Matildas, on a tour to India. Soccer is a growing sport played by millions in India, and as a game in Australia, it attracts a much more socially and culturally diverse base of players than cricket.

Second, spend more money funding Australian diplomacy with India. Diplomats have managed programmes that have brought to India popular Australian films and writers such as Booker-prize winner Peter Carey. Many Indian journalists have been sent to Australia to work in local media. This scheme should be extended to include other occupations.

And finally, Australia must accept India’s growing expertise in information technology services, and not put up barriers stopping young Indians from being among the first in their generation to benefit from globalisation.

One these things are done, we should get back to playing — and talking — cricket.