Will the press descend again?

The deputy president of the Malaysian Cricket Association, P Krishnaswamy, who is also the chairman of the organising committee of the Under-19 World Cup, had told me that he expected crowds, relatively speaking, to turn up from the quarter-finals onwards. And sure enough, apart from the school children who were being brought to the game to spread awareness, there was a sizeable Indian contingent cheering their team on in the match against England. There were a few English supporters as well but you had to search for them because they weren't heard. They didn't have much to cheer about all day. I haven't been to a Bangladesh game in the tournament but word is that their support has been strong.

The press box at the Kinrara Oval has also been sparsely populated during the first round of the tournament. Apart from the ICC officials, television, and radio commentary crews, there are only a handful of journalists: three from India, one from South Africa who works for the official website, and a few from Sri Lanka. I've heard that there were several Pakistan journalists in Johor so they should arrive at the Kinrara for their quarter-final against Australia tomorrow.

However, there was a stack of uncollected media passes in the press box. I spotted one belonging to a Mumbai journalist, who had applied for accreditation but not yet made the trip to Kuala Lumpur. While travelling by taxi, the journalist I was with got a call from a TV reporter in India asking for sound bytes from Malaysia regarding India's progress. I had heard that in 2006, the press box gradually filled up as India advanced in the tournament and it was a packed house for the finals. There's no reason to believe that 2008 will be any different if India are one of the teams playing on March 2.