England’s Barmy Army of travelling supporters drew first blood in their Ashes campaign down under on Wednesday, trouncing Australia’s Fanatics in a 20/20 match.
In a result they will hope is an omen for the Test series starting on Thursday, the English supporters set their Australian rivals a target of 214 then skittled them for 151.
”I don’t think it’s indicative of what will happen in the Ashes at all,” said Brisbane Norths Cricket Club secretary Bill Keene, whose organisation hosted the event.
”I’m very confident Australia will regain the Ashes.”
The match between the two sets of supporters is indicative of the warmth with which the Barmy Army have been embraced in Australia, where their football-style chants have added a new dimension to watching Tests.
Keene, who has been involved in cricket since his boyhood in Brisbane more than 50 years ago, said he had never seen a more eagerly anticipated Test series.
”When I was a boy they used to describe cricket as a dying game,” he said.
”Everyone’s talking about the Ashes now and I haven’t heard much about the rugby league,” he added, referring to the 13-man rugby code that normally dominates the Queensland state capital’s sporting consciousness.
Meanwhile, the Fanatics had their own victory on Wednesday when global recording giant EMI backed down from threats to sue them for breach of copyright over a songbook that included some of the company’s protected tunes.
The Australian supporter group had created the book in an attempt to match the Barmy Army’s chants but faced the prospect of having to shred 100 000 copies if the court action proceeded.
”Thankfully, sanity’s prevailed,” Fanatics spokesperson Colin Parket said.
”I think our friends at EMI realised they weren’t going to do themselves any favours with the Australian public by suing us and have decided not to proceed.”
The book had used tunes by EMI-copyrighted artists such as Cliff Richard, Robbie Williams and the Rolling Stones to poke fun at England. — Sapa-AFP