"Support India? I have no ties there."

"I have no ties with India. Why should I support India?," says Sajjad who was born in Nairobi, lives in London but whose parents belonged to India, writes Kadambari Murali.

Sajjad and Sayeed are both part of the handful of Kenyan supporters at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Both are data communication engineers -- one lives in London and the other in Leicester. Both are born in Nairobi. And both have parents who moved there from Maharashtra."Why should I support India?" asks Sajjad with a laugh, proudly waving the Kenyan flag around as Ravindu Shah gets a rare Kenyan four. "I have no ties with India really. The problem will be if there is an England-Kenya match, then I'll just stay home and watch it on TV."But the strange part of the whole support game here is that many of the Indian fans present here at the Rose Bowl are people who have moved to England from Kenya. Sayeed says the stranger part of the fan game is that there is no logic to anything. "In my mind, I'm clear that I should support Kenya in this game but my daughter, who is born in neither Kenya nor India, supports India."Both the men incidentally, speak Urdu at home (there are others in their group who speak Konkani) and watch all the latest Bollywood movies but they say that is incidental. "It's like so many Indians watching English movies," says Sayeed. "Same thing."But then there's Afzaal, born in Nairobi and living in Sheffield, who is passionately following the Indian team around England. He proudly says that he and his friend Dal (Daljeet) were among those who booed Vikram Solanki for playing for England in the Trent Bridge game. Why, you venture to ask. "Because we Asians are not recognised as part of the mainstream here, whatever we do," he says. "There's the odd exception but they're the exception. Solanki is just that."Daljeet has his own take. "We live here because some of us are born here and some of us come here because the standard of living and opportunities are better than in India. But backing the Indian team and winning in cricket is one way of getting back at not being accepted wholly as being English by the whites here."Having said their bit, they wave goodbye and get back to idly watching the match, drinking beer and discussing the merits of various Premiership sides, something they were doing before they were interrupted.