Melbourne: It’s a totally different set of fans for the World Cup final. Unlike fans from the sub-continent, Australian and New Zealand fans are not noisy but are witty and will argue for their team till the end.

Called the ‘Beige Brigade’, New Zealand fans have all arrived in Melbourne. All you have to ask them is about their team’s chances of winning the cup, and they will bombard you with 100 factors that are in their favour, all in less than a minute. Australian fans, on the other hand, are out to belittle their neighbours and have even been joking at their opponent’s style of batting.

They claim that the sixes hit in this World Cup on New Zealand grounds will safely land in the hands of either mid-off or mid-on or mid-wicket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

New Zealand fans have angrily reacted to this with graphs of the shots their batsmen played in New Zealand, indicating that 16 of the 25 sixes they hit would have been sixes at the MCG as well. If that was not enough, they also point out that out of the remaining nine sixes, only two were hit over the head of a fielder all the others were safe through the gaps.

This has led to discussion on the MCG, which is one of the biggest in world cricket. Among the jokes doing the rounds on the magnitude of the ground are: “MCG is so big that the next batsman coming in has to take a cab to reach the middle.” Another one says: “It is so big that one has to bring back timeless Tests to give players enough time to get to the middle.”

It was hence obvious that at the pre-match press conference, New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum would be questioned on the size of the MCG and whether his players would be able to cope with it after playing in smaller grounds.

McCullum compared MCG to Abu Dhabi’s Shaikh Zayed Cricket Stadium: “If you look at the Abu Dhabi cricket ground in UAE, that’s a big ground as well. Obviously it doesn’t have the same amphitheatre effect that the MCG presents but I think the boundary size there is bigger. In this day and age, with bigger bats as well, it still brings into play the fours and sixes. So we’ll adapt accordingly.”

Majority of the tickets for the finals are with the Indian fans since they had expected India to reach the finals. Some were seen selling it but most have decided to come for the finals. “For a change, I will be able to relax and enjoy cricket without tension. Who will want to miss a World Cup final even if it is not India that is playing?” remarked Gurinder Singh from New Delhi.

Although it wasn’t match day, lunch was served for the media. It is rare to find a chef taking so much interest in feeding journalists like in Melbourne. He ensures that he serves every one personally and urges them to eat well. “My name is Greg Natoli and am Italian. What I enjoy most is to see people relishing the food I cooked,” he remarked while serving pasta and butter chicken to the journalists.