Learn English – “India has” or “India have”

british-englishsubject-verb-agreementword-choice

English is not my first language. Sometimes I read some mistakes in newspapers and get confused. Please check below sentences and let me know your valuable feedback.

As per newspapers:

India have won the match.

As per me, it should be:

India has won the match.

My point is that with India (a country) we should use has, right?

Best Answer

When talking about a national sports term, rather than a country, it's not unusual (in British English, at least), to use the plural. This is because a team is regarded as a group of people, whereas a country is not (companies also tend to use the plural; see also here).

So:

India have 11 players on the pitch.

suggests that we're talking about an Indian sports team.

Compare:

India has a population of 1.2 billion.

which implies we're talking about the country.