Zealous English fans storm pub city

Fanfare

Cricket enthusiasts from the British Isles spent Saturday looking out for Bangalore’s fun places and ferreting out beer. Barmy Army, the group of English cricket fans, who have been following the team all over the world since 1994, is determined to make Sunday’s match an unforgettable experience.

While the fans appear level-headed and do not fancy their team’s chances much, nonetheless, they hope the match will have an electric atmosphere. Darren Smale, a cricket-lover from Swindon, England, is excited as he has just found Coconut Grove Bar, a tavern on Church Street. For him, the bar sells beer at an unbelievably cheap rate.

Like him, there are many English fans who want to enjoy every moment of their stay in the City. Smale is pretty realistic about his team’s high-profile clash with Dhoni’s men. Well, he doesn’t mince words in saying that India will have the upper hand.
“I can see only India winning the match. Apart from the home advantage, they have some high-quality batsmen like Tendulkar and Sehwag,” Smale says.

Many Barmy Army members are staying at the Golden Residency Hotel, Gandhinagar. But they haven’t actually kept in touch with each other.

These cricket enthusiasts bought the tickets through kyazoonga.com long ago. With the match originally scheduled to be held in Kolkata, they had planned to travel to the North East. But they had to change the travel plans when the game was moved to Bangalore.

Still, they hung on. Interestingly, many of them are yet to collect their tickets and are equally clueless where they would be put up in the stadium. “First thing in the morning, I will go to the stadium and collect my ticket. I don’t know where my seat would be, but I would prefer to be in the company of other English fans,” says another fervent cricket fan.

Smale, on his part, has big plans to cheer the English team. “I have brought my Swindon town flag. But I’m unsure if they will allow me to take it inside,” he said.
The English fans will be in India till the England-South Africa match in Chennai on March 6 and go back on March 9.