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Australia and Indonesia building bridges through sport
AFP - Friday, February 6
JAKARTA (AFP) - - Some foreign football teams would have headed straight for a Jacuzzi in a swish Bali hotel after a match against Indonesia at the sweltering Gelora Bung Karno Stadium here -- but not Australia's Socceroos.
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The team visited a madrassa, or Islamic school, in West Java to joke around with children from poor families, and hopefully teach them something about Australia along the way.
The Socceroos' "clinic" was the latest addition on a growing list of Australian-Indonesian sporting programmes aimed at fostering cultural and social relations between the two unlikely neighbours.
The children at the madrassa last week were shy at first but warmed to the Australians when one of their classmates headed a ball into the net past bewildered Socceroo Archie Thompson.
"We have seen great raw talent in this country and all they need is someone to come develop it," Thompson said.
The night before, Australia and Indonesia had played a tense 0-0 draw in an Asian Cup qualifer, a good result for Indonesia considering it languishes more than 100 places behind Australia in the FIFA world rankings.
"It would be great if Australia came here more often, it would be good for international friendship and a great thing for Indonesian football," 32-year-old Indonesian fan Priyogo said at the stadium.
Some of the sporting initiatives are formal, organised or backed by the national governments, but many are just the work of local sports clubs wanting to broaden their horizons and make friends.
Geoffrey Gold, the Jakarta-based Australian director of sports marketing and development consultancy Sports Dynamics Asia, has been organising amateur and professional sports events between Indonesia and Australia for years.
One of his personal favourites was the Papuan under-23 women's basketball team's trip to Melbourne in May last year. The "Papuan Curly Angels," as they call themselves, were instant hits Down Under.
"It was a wonderful achievement for everyone. The girls were so happy to be playing and learning, and more importantly making friends with their hosts," Gold said.
"Grassroots sports fit the development matrix perfectly as they can help fight poverty, abuse and be an avenue for rehabilitation (after traumatic experiences)," he said.
The Curly Angels returned to Indonesia and beat all the odds to win silver at the national games in East Kalimantan in July.
"The momentum (for better relations through sport) is starting, but it's starting at the sub-national level so it's a bit off the radar, and that's maybe more effective," Gold said.
Last year the Australian city of Darwin hosted an under-18 soccer tournament between Australia's Northern Territory, East Timor and Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province. Gold said organisers hoped to make it an annual event.
In another first last year, the inaugural Western Australia vs East Java Football Friendship Cup was held in East Java. The locals won 2-0.
Western Australia, whose capital Perth is closer to Jakarta than it is to Canberra, also participated in a school basketball competition against the Deteski Basketball League.
The league, the largest in Indonesia, is based on the student-athlete concept where players have to maintain academic standards and sport is used to help young people develop social skills.
The US table tennis team's trip to China in 1971 and the 2007 visit to Iran by a group of US wrestlers are examples of Washington's belief in the diplomatic power of sport.
Many in India and Pakistan will say the nuclear-armed neighbours would have wiped each other out long ago if not for fear of upsetting the great cricket rivalry the countries both love.
Australia and Indonesia are not superpowers or brandishing nuclear weapons at each other, but they place great weight in the strength of the bilateral relationship.
Ties between the two countries probably hit rock bottom when Australia led a multinational stabilisation force to East Timor in 1999, but the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 88 Australians including a number of young sportsmen, marked the start of a new era of cooperation.
And sport is playing its part in making sure things stay friendly and relaxed, Australian embassy spokeswoman Jenny Dee said.
"Sport is friendship. It allows us to get to know each other better on a person-to-person level," she said.
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