Rival fans make their presence felt

I’ve been to a fair number of grounds at the Under-19 World Cup so far and there haven’t been many fans coming to watch the cricket. The few that do show up are mostly schoolchildren who have been brought in for their first cricket experience, or the families of players who have traveled to Malaysia to follow the cricket.

So when I saw a few people coming in nearly an hour early to the Australia-Sri Lanka game at the Penang Sports Club, I assumed they were related to the Australian cricketers. They had come well equipped with two massive Australian flags, an over-sized ice box full of beer and soft drinks – but mainly beer – an inflatable Wallaby and a pump to inflate it. They were enthusiastic enough to haul a football goalpost about 50 yards towards their tent so that they could drape their flags from it. I went up to ask which cricketer’s family they were.

It turned out that they weren’t family. There’s a Royal Air Force base in Butterworth, Penang and these fans were stationed there. There were about ten before the start of the match but Grant, who appeared to be the chief enthusiast, said he expected about 80 to come in. They have an Australian Defence Force (ADF) cricket team and its banner, which has a pouncing tiger with claws bared for a symbol, was signed by all the U-19 cricketers and hung over the tent. The icing on the cake, however, was a “Bay 13” sign which hung between the Australian flags, in honour of the famous stand at the MCG which is renowned for its not-so-sophisticated behavior.

Soon more people turned out – and some families of the cricketers as well – and as the beer flowed the shouts of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” grew louder. No day at the cricket is complete without a barbie, said one of them and so as lunch approached they set up a grill. We were over at the buffet at the press tent but their set-up looked infinitely more inviting. Several Australian players went over to the barbeque during the break though the Australian captain Michael Hill got waylaid by photo requests on the way. It began with two girls asking him to pose and then everyone wanted their pictures taken.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic. The Sri Lankan fans, athough they were less conspicuous, had a tent of their own with a buffet and bar. “We drink Australian beer but we beat them,” said one fan. They have a club here named Oceans XI and claim they beat the ADF XI twice last year. They were unnoticed early on but as the match progressed; they had more to cheer about and made themselves heard.