Melbourne, Dec 27 (ANI): The Swami Army made their presence felt at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the Boxing Day Test with supporters cheering Indian players on drum beats.
Harpreet Sandhu played the dhol drum energizing a thousand Indians around him chant for their team.
The Swami Army added the foreign spice to the local cricket diet, The Age reports.
"I barrack for Australia in everything except cricket. I was born here, so I am first-generation Indian but I am like many Indians who have come here and see cricket as a way of assimilating in Australia. ," Sundhu said
"The dhol drum has a good melody and beat to it so it is a good drum with the chanting. It helps create atmosphere and a good time. We pump the crowd up," he said.
Swami Army organiser Sumit Grover said 1400 Indians joined the official army yesterday, filling two bays of the ground level of the Southern Stand at the railway end.
But with a large expatriate population living and studying in Melbourne, there were thousands more Indians throughout the ground, giving the crowd of 70,068 a more balanced feel, and sound: the cheers for wickets were as loud as those for runs.
Grover said: "Definitely we have been louder than the Australians today. 'We love to be here and to make a lot of noise and sing and chant and play music. It adds to the atmosphere of the day. We are like the Barmy Army but with a Bollywood touch.
"We are like the Barmy Army in name and style but there are a lot of families here and a lot of women ... it probably makes it more a family atmosphere." (ANI)
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