Monique Devereux, former chief reporter at the Herald and now Christchurch correspondent for Radio New Zealand, is at the Cricket World Cup. She brings nzherald.co.nz regular news and views from the West Indies
KEY POINTS:
While many Indian cricket fans have gone home, or just chosen not to travel to the Caribbean anymore at all, a trickle of supporters are arriving in Antigua.
It's hard not to feel for them, especially the family groups who have probably saved for years to be ableto bring their children on a trip of a lifetime.
I've started seeing them around the hotel – Mum, Dad and the kids, wearing Indian supporters gear and looking slightly downcast, their bookings probably part of nonrefundable package deals.
They have tickets to the Super Eights games that they (and the rest of the cricket world) had assumed their team would be playing in. So they turn up at the games anyway, no doubt just hoping to see some good cricket regardless of who is playing.
Some had adopted new teams to support, and I saw one news photograph from the Australia vs Bangladesh game the other day which summed it up. A young woman was holding a sign along the lines of "Go India" with the India crossed out and Bangladesh written beneath it.
I imagine its sort of like Kiwis supporting Australia against England in the Rugby World Cup final.
Obviously it's not the same.
For the legion of Indian and Pakistani journalists and photographers, it's a similar story.
Many have gone home. Those who remain seem less-than enthused about the cricket and are filling up the slots at media events put on by the very generous Antiguan Ministry of Tourism.
These are tours of the island, visits to historic places etc that many of the media miss out on because they are working.
And they generally involve a lot of rum punch.
The remaining Indian journalists expected to be so busy following India's progress that they didn't even bring their togs. So they have resorted to swimming and snorkeling and even dancing at these events in their underwear – an interesting sight, and a very good reason to drink rum punch.
