JULIA Gillard has begun her Indian visit by paying homage to one great bond that unites the two countries - the love of cricket.
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The Prime Minister announced that champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar was being honoured with an Order of Australia award.
On tour at the moment, Tendulkar will get his medal from Simon Crean when the Regional Australia Minister visits India soon.
Ms Gillard said ''this is a very special honour, very rarely awarded to someone who is not an Australian citizen or an Australian national''. The ''Little Master'' is the first foreign cricketer to receive the honour since Brian Lara in 2009.
This was ''a very special recognition of such a great batsman'' she said, adding that Australia and India were ''both cricket-mad nations''.
Ms Gillard made the announcement while visiting a cricket clinic run by the charity Magic Bus, which mentors 250,000 young people from impoverished areas all over India. The scheme, started by Englishman Matthew Spacie, who played rugby for India, uses sport as a platform to teach children life skills, helping them to get a good education and stay healthy.
It takes in children from the age of eight and mentors them until they are 18, including putting them into programs to prepare them for employment.
Ms Gillard posed happily with the cheering children and watched them play, but refused media entreaties to take up bat or ball herself.
She said she was not tempted to try her hand because she lacked cricketing skills - she also had learnt a thing or two from John Howard. While she hadn't agreed with his policies in many respects, ''I watched and learnt from his prime ministership and a key lesson is never pick up a bat in India in front of our friends from the media.'' Some years ago, Mr Howard was embarrassed when balls he bowled while in Pakistan exposed his deficiencies, going into the ground or wide.
But Ms Gillard did pose with a bat that was part of cricketing equipment staff from the Australian high commission presented to the project.
Several cricketers from the Australian Indigenous Cricket Team were with Ms Gillard. The team has just begun a tour of India - unfortunately, it lost its first match on the last ball.
The Magic Bus project has received $1 million through the Australian Sports Commission over five years.
Ms Gillard said she had met some fantastic kids at the clinic. ''Education transforms lives,'' she said. ''When you combine sport with education you get a very powerful combination.''
Country independent Rob Oakeshott was sceptical about Tendulkar's award. He tweeted: ''Does anyone have a problem with [Australian] honours being handed out to citizens of other nations? I'm probably on a limb, but I don't like it.
''Can't we give something else though? Why merge Australian honours list with international diplomacy?''
With DAMIEN BRIGHT
