With much fanfare and some rouge paint for Mandira Bedi, cricket is to wed entertainment this festive Champions Trophy season. And staying true to the backdrop of this Great Indian Marriage, visiting teams — like Indian grooms — have arrived here with a king-sized wedding procession. Typically bulging in numbers and varied in their attire, actually headgear, members of the support staff wear their different hats with aplomb.

Not surprisingly, it is the Australians who have been in the forefront of this bandwagon. The first ones to make an attempt to befriend Indian culture before they marched out to conquer the Final Frontier, the Aussies have been pioneers in putting together an appendix to the record-scripting team of 11.

Ricky Ponting’s men camping in Mumbai have one to match every Baggy Green that takes to the field — with 11 members making up the support squad. That includes manager Steve Bernard, a compulsive newspaper reader, and the studious-looking coach John Buchanan, besides his deputy Dene Hills, an affable bloke who can plunge into serious strategy, moments after he has smiled plenty sharing tidbits with the press corps.

Richard McGuiness lugs his tripod and laptop around, and his role as performance analyst keeps him and his rolling-happy digicam busy, tracking other teams, hard at work. While, Reg Dikasson, the security-in-charge, keeps a roving eye on both adoring fans and unwanted rogues.

Alex Kontouris, Justin Cordy and Lucy Frostick are in charge of keeping this famous Australian squad in smack shape, and carry super-specialised briefs: Kontouri, the physio, Cordy looking after strength and conditioning, and Frostick, the lady massage therapist. The man overseeing the nets is bowling coach Troy Cooley, poached from England, who in turn had snapped him from Tasmania, while fielding coach Mike Young, conducting Australia’s ever-innovating drills is a striking instance of cricket consuming a man from baseball, the English game’s American cousin.

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