World Cup Cocktail
One fan is making a 34,000km round trip from London in less than four days. Gerard Walsh, chairman of the London New Zealand Cricket Club, left London on Friday morning and landed in Melbourne last night.
He will watch the game before returning to his desk in the UK on Tuesday morning. "I am insanely excited about this game," Walsh said.
Porterfield takes dig at N Srinivasan
William Porterfield has taken a dig at the ICC's proposal of truncating the next edition of the World Cup to a 10-team affair yet again. This time he specifically targeted ICC boss N Srinivasan who defended the 10-team World Cup idea during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 final between Australia and New Zealand.
The 10-team World Cup proposal has incurred a great deal of flak from the associate members and the cricketing world at large. Former players like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahela Jayawardene have come ouyt in support of the associates too and Porterfield made it a point to mention them.
"So business man N Srinivasan thinks it should be a 10 team WC. Think I will stick with the view of Tendulkar, Dravid, Jayawardene etc", tweeted Porterfield.
Wish comes true for cricket crazy couple
Black Caps fanatic Paddy Singe has truly bowled a maiden over.
The 53-year-old Aucklander and his wife, Anne, will be among the 100,000-strong crowd at the MCG for today's Cricket World Cup final.
The trip was Paddy's last-minute present to Anne, a former cricket player, for the couple's 34th wedding anniversary, which fell yesterday.
"The game is in my blood and going to the final is a dream come true," Anne told the Herald on Sunday.
"If there is one trip at the top of my bucket list, it would be this one."
The Singes had planned a romantic break in Fiji, but that was canned when the Black Caps made the final.
Paddy said Anne decided towards the end of Tuesday's nail-biting semifinal against South Africa that if the Black Caps won they would get to the final, no matter what. "On Wednesday morning I looked into it but getting flights and match tickets looked impossible," he said.
Then a friend forwarded a link to an auction for a romantic weekend package to the final, worth $10,000 and Paddy won with a $7000 bid.
As well as two first-class return seats to Melbourne, premium tickets to the final and five-star accommodation, the deal included a diamond ring. "It seemed like the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary and getting the ring took care of my present," Anne said.
Pitch invader on field before the anthems
One punter at the Cricket World Cup final will miss the entire game after running on to the field at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before the match began today.
The pitch invader took to the field just before the national anthems were played at the game and made it out halfway across the area before being tackled to the ground by security.
The effort was greeted with baffled derision on Twitter, at the thought of missing the game for seconds of glory.
-Compiled