Brisbane: For the diehard Indian cricket fan, age is just a number.
The Allan Border Field spectator gallery here on Thursday was chock-a-block with Indian diaspora -- young and old -- turning out in huge numbers to catch a glimpse of their favourite cricketers, especially Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, and see them defeat Australia in the first Women’s ODI against Australia.
Though the Indian batting came up woefully short and the team lost by five wickets, there was no shortage of ardent fans cheering their team wearing blue jerseys and holding the tricolour.
Three generations of Satinder Pal Sandhu -- 70-year-old father and six-month-old daughter -- accompanied him to the venue, while Sukhjit Singh Sarjan took leave from work to show his six-year-old daughter her favourite cricketer Mandhana.
“We always come to watch the India matches. I have taken leave from work and brought my father along... he rarely goes out but he never misses an India game. My son is a fan of Yashasvi Jaiswal,” Satinder, who hails from Sirsa in Haryana and has been living here for 16 years, told PTI Bhasha.
“Our team is good, and winning and losing is part of the game. We are missing Shafali Verma. She has not able to perform consistently (in the lead-up to the WODI series) but when she is in form, she wins matches for India,” he said, even as spectators, numbering around 5,000, danced to lively Punjabi music, giving the atmosphere an Indian feel.
Many of the spectators who thronged the venue were those who could not get tickets for the third Border-Gavaskar Test at the Gabba, beginning December 14, and wanted to make up for the missed opportunity by watching the Women’s ODI.
“Not only the Indians, the Australian community, Cricket Australia and state associations are also very excited about the (women’s) India-Australia series. There is no dearth of fans of the Indian team here and they come from far and wide. People have come here from Gold Coast and Melbourne as well,” said Ashutosh Mishra, a multi-cultural project manager at Queensland Cricket and hailing from Prayagraj.