Narendra Modi offers humorous apology to Australian MPs in speech

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi injected some humour into his address to Australia's parliament yesterday, using the term "shirtfront" to make fun of his host while also talking cricket.

"As the third head of the government you are listening to this week, I do not know how you are doing this," Modi told MPs, who were addressed by President Xi Jinping on Monday and Britain's David Cameron last Friday. "Maybe this is Prime Minister Abbott's way of shirtfronting you."

Abbott made "shirtfront" - which describes a face-to-face confrontation in Australian Rules Football - a global concept when in October he threatened to do it to Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G20 over the crisis in Ukraine. In the end, the two men were all smiles for the cameras.

Modi is the second leader to use the once-obscure term in his speech. Cameron recalled his concern when Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was purposefully striding towards him at a summit in Italy. "I wondered … whether I was heading for … a 'shirtfronting'," he said, before saying she had only wanted to offer help to fight Ebola.