After the numbers that turned up for the first two games against Pakistan and South Africa, one wasn't expecting too much from the UAE game but for the West Indies match it looked like all roads led to the WACA. Yet again!
There's a 'Yellow Cat' bus that takes fans from the main Perth train station to near the WACA, and the bus on match day was full of Indians. A few Aussies in the bus looked quizzically all around and almost pinched themselves out of a purported dream that has transported them to India.
Even we were equally surprised to see the amount of interest in this game.
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Ask a guy in the Indian jersey where are they from and he says there's a group of 40-odd Indians from different parts of London, there to watch the rest of the World Cup.
Perth is their first destination. All of us get down close to the WACA and we request them for a picture, which they gladly oblige. We are told they are two different groups - the other being from Singapore - who we met in that same bus.
Walking into the ground, the intensity is obviously lower than that at the Adelaide Oval or the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Pakistan and South Africa match, but it's reasonable enough. There are very few pockets of West Indian supporters, as the rest of the ground is packed with Indians and the tri-colour is often on show. Especially when the West Indies implode with the bat against some surprisingly refreshing Indian pace attack.
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The West Indies show a bit more resilience with the ball and almost have India in a lot of trouble but their most calm batsman under pressure, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, takes the side home. Easily in the end.
In the press box, one of the only two West Indian journalists is super-angry when the West Indies decide to bat first after bringing in Kemar Roach and then super-excited to see the start the team gets with the ball.
Somewhere between those two stages we have a chat and he is asked whether the West Indies should play as separate islands. He is mortified and explains that's never going to work.
"Do you think England will tour each of these island countries separately to play in a three-Test series?"
Makes for a valid argument.
On the way back we meet a Sri Lanka journalist who readily gives a lift back to the station, except that his car is about 15 walking minutes away from the stadium. 20 minutes is also the approximate walking time from the stadium to the station, so we wonder whether we needed that lift anyway.
The next stop is Hamilton in New Zealand. And when you are planning to get there from the western-most major city of Australia, life isn't that easy. The flight from Perth is cramped and departs 45 minutes late.
Why? Because the airlines have apparently goofed up between two passengers with the same name and need one of them to go through security yet again. The other guy who is allowed immediate entry into the flight sits next to us.
We begin chatting and he reveals he's from London and out there with a group of Indians to watch the World Cup. I say to myself, London, again?
We ask him whether he was one of those in the 'Yellow Cat' bus whose picture was clicked by a stranger. He says yes. We remind him that we did the honours. He looks at us more closely and says, "Oh yes, that was you!"
World's a small place!
Also in the same flight are a few other journalists and that India's 'biggest' fan, Sudhir Kumar.
Without his make-up and paint he looks quite a different guy, but we recognise him almost immediately.
His flight is to Auckland from where he has another flight to take to Hamilton for the Ireland game. As things stand, our delayed flight reaches 20 minutes late and a long customs clearance later, he is only 15 minutes away from his Hamilton flight. Not sure whether he managed to catch it on time.
It takes a long time to get out of the Auckland airport because they are strict about what you are bringing in with you. Our bottle of honey is confiscated and dumped. The packaged noodles are allowed in. So are our sports shoes, which is better than what Harbhajan Singh had managed on the 2002-03 tour where he was fined a $200 for his dirty shoes.
The jet-lag kills off the rest of the day for me, but we do manage to get to the Indian team's hotel in the evening. Get reliably informed some of them have their food cooked by a few local families in Hamilton while others decide to walk out for dinner. Catch up with a few journalist friends and get to one of the many Indian restaurants in the vicinity of the town for an excellent meal. That was a long time coming!
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