Members of Australia's Air Force Base and their families watch the cricket ... © George Binoy

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.

	... while some Sri Lankan fans support their team from another part of the ground © George Binoy

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.