Bharat Army ready for big World Cup blue

AUSTRALIA’S star-studded women’s team risks being swept away by a sea of blue in their anticipated World Cup opener against India on Friday at Sydney Olympic Park.

The recent trend of Indian men’s matches at the SCG has been for the Swami Army to completely dominate crowd numbers and create a frenzied sub-continent style atmosphere.

Indian fans are threatening the same kind of blue-out for the World Cup, with the Bharat Army ready to turn Homebush into Hyderabad.

The likes of Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning are accustomed to playing in front of partisan Australian crowds on home soil, and Friday is shaping up as uncharted territory for the defending T20 champs.

Only single tickets remain in the Indian fan sections, while the pressure is on Australian fans to snap up the strongly selling tickets before the Bharat Army completes a takeover of Sydney Showgrounds Stadium.

“We have pretty much sold most of the tickets, it’s going to be great,” said Kunal Gandhi, the head of the Bharat Army fan group.

“We will have drummers and Indian dancers.

“It will be a cracker of a game and we will keep you guys entertained.

“Even last Sunday when there was a game [Australia v India] in Canberra, three or four thousand Indian fans travelled down from Sydney to watch that match as well.”

India has already showed it is not here to make up the numbers.

Pushing the Australians all the way in the recent tri-series, the sleeping giants of women’s cricket are more than capable of causing an upset to open the tournament.