After having a ball with fan support for the Adelaide and Melbourne matches, it will be a different scenario in Perth where not many Indians may come to watch the relatively lesser games against UAE and West Indies. The reasons are many. First, most of the Indians living in Australia, and they have filled the stands in a major way, live in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Perth lies far, far away in western Australia and by all counts is a hot unwelcoming venue. The Indian fans who have travelled to Australia from India, US and Europe for the World Cup are likely to join the team in New Zealand where the fun, climate and tourism potential is much friendlier. Perth has only three WC matches, including the two India matches against UAE and West Indies and an Australia-Afghanistan match in the middle.
Why India would be allotted a comparatively alien venue of Perth, that too for two matches spread over 11 days, is a question everyone is asking. The Indian hub is Sydney where not a single group stage match has been scheduled and where it might not get to play at all in this World Cup. Even Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland is a bit foxed about this decision. He acknowledged that the crowd at Sydney would have been much more than perhaps in Perth. India will make it to Sydney only if its Group B positioning pits it against Sri lanka in the quarterfinals.
With Perth expected to cross the dreaded 38 degrees Celsius in the next few days, it will be a gruelling match in the middle of all the heat. Already, bush fire warnings and total fire bans have been put in place by the authorities here with the flames expected to catch up in most of the southern areas of the state. By 11.30am the temperature in Perth appeared to be well on the way to the expected top, reaching 38.4C. Pearce, 45km east of the city, hit 41.9C just after midday. The Climate Council report has warned that western Australia’s most bushfire-prone regions could become uninhabitable. last year there were 1000 fires in WA and the heatwave days in Perth have increased by 50 per cent since 1950.
Perth is in the middle of its highly attended Australian ballet season and the lady powering it all is Sarah Murdoch, married to Rupert Murdoch’s son lachlan. She is a known model, fashionista and charity pusher. The Australian Ballet will be performing its interpretation for Sleeping Beauty and the tickets for this are already sold out. As compared to this, the UAE match is still available for those who would want to brave the heat at the WACA stands on February 28.