Now, here comes Australia’s No. 1 fan

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News service

Kolkata, September 20

“I am the No. 1 fan of the Australian team,” so claimed a tall white man with a flowing beard. Dressed in the Australian team’s outfit, and running from one gate to another at the Eden Gardens, he insisted on showing his pictures with the Australian players as an evidence of his claim. People in India are pretty used to this No. 1 fan thing, thanks to Sachin Tendulkar’s ardent fan Sudhir Gautam, who has been India’s unofficial No. 1 fan for many years now. So, the Australian wasn’t getting as much attention as he was apparently hoping for. Quite incredibly, it turned out it was Gautam who had inspired this Perth-based Australian into taking up the vacant mantle of Australia’s No. 1 fan. 

“I met Sudhir during the 2015 World Cup... I liked what he did, and thought of doing what he does,” said James Keating. “I had always liked cricket, so it was not a difficult decision to make for me.” 

Having found an audience, Keating rattled out all the information he thought we would be interested in. “I like travelling to India, this is my second tour here. I was here during Australia’s Test tour as well... I had then sledged Virat over DRS and the video of me doing so had gone viral,” he said, with an unmistakable hint of pride. So where else has he travelled?  “Almost everywhere except for England, South Africa and the Caribbean, these places are expensive, a farmer like me can’t afford to go to these places,” he said. “You see, we’ve a lot of droughts, so no rain, no money.” Alas, the fortunes of many farmers remain the same, no matter where they are.

Net assessment: Aussies struggling against chinaman

If the net bowlers go away unimpressed after bowling at international batsmen, the batsmen they bowled to must really be struggling. Generally, the net bowlers walk out marvelling at the skills of the batsmen they bowled to. But today, the three chinaman bowlers who bowled to the Australian batsmen came out discussing how many times each of them had managed to dismiss the batsmen. One said he dismissed Steve Smith twice, another said he got Marcus Stoinis thrice, and the third felt Peter Handscomb was all at sea against him. “They all struggled against chinaman bowlers, even against the leg-spinners,” said Rupak Guha, one of the three bowlers. “They are struggling to pick the wrong one from chinaman bowlers, and some of them are struggling to pick up even the length.” Looks like it’s going to be a while before the Aussies figure out how to tackle Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal!