Indians likely to transform SCG into sea of blue

Sydney, March 23 (IANS) Australia's plea for a gold rush of hometown support for Thursday's cricket World Cup semi-final is set to be washed away by a tsunami of patriotic Indians, who are out to turn the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) into a sea of blue.

The organisers are privately expecting a staggering 70 percent of a sold out crowd at the SCG to be made up of fanatical Indian supporters, reports news.co.au on Monday.

Australian players like Michael Clarke and David Warner sensed the prospect of an ambush early and have issued impassioned calls to arms for fans to create a gold out on Thursday.

But co-founder of the Swami Army (the largest organised group of supporters of the Indian cricket team, aimed at helping cricket fans worldwide watch the Indian team play) Kartik Ayyalasomayajula said India versus Australia is the biggest clash and fans in Sydney will gather in numbers to get the sub-continent feeling back.

"India versus Australia in a World Cup semi-final, it doesn't get much bigger than that. This country won't have seen this level of support or atmosphere for cricket games," Kartik said.

"You have to go to the sub-continent countries to get that kind of feel, so we are effectively bringing that atmosphere to Sydney. It's going to be a spectacle," he added.

Organisers say there are no tickets available and the SCG will be packed to its 42,000-seat capacity.

Thousands of Indian supporters are flying in to watch the match from even the United States, England, Singapore and the sub-continent itself.

Captain Clarke and Steven Smith started the push for Australian fans to create a presence at the SCG less than two hours after his team stepped off the field from beating Pakistan.

"I call on all Australian cricket lovers to paint the SCG gold on Thursday. We need your support. #goldout," Clarke tweeted.

Smith also joined his skipper and tweeted, "Great win by the boys last night. Back to Sydney now. Can't wait for the semi final vs India. Let's fill the place with Gold!"