South Africa chalo, shout Indian fans

NEW DELHI: India may rank No 7 in one-day cricket ratings. The bookies may not include us in their fav four for the 2003 World Cup. But Indians are prepared to cheer their team all the way to South Africa.
Indians like Girish Dani, an Ahmedabad-based industrialist, who''s been to the last three World Cups with his family, is still raring to go: "We love watching India play.New Zealand doesn''t matter. I have a feeling India will reach the finals. Even my son, who has exams, will join us for it."
Dani and his family are among the 4,000 Indians who are already booked for South Africa during the World Cup. SOTC-Kuoni and the combined team of Trust Travels-Sachinam Travels, the two agencies organising World Cup packages in India, expect another 1,000 bookings between them.
Five to six-day packages that cost between $1,500 and $2,000, depending on the places you visit and the matches you opt for, are the most popular. Not surprisingly, the India-Pakistan pool match on March 1 at Sun City is the hot favourite followed by the India-Australia and India-England draws at Pretoria and Durban. The semis and finals are equally sought after.
Says Rajiv Duggal, vice-president, Special Interest Tours, Kuoni Outbound, "For the World Cup in London four years ago, 1,400 people went from India. This year, we have booked over 2,000 people."
Trust Travels'' Zakir Ahmed, too, says they have booked more than 1,600 packages and expect a few hundred more. Ahmed adds, "This is a big figure as the grounds in South Africa are small. Also, as the last World Cup was held in Britain, most Indians combined their family visits with the cricket matches. This time the visits are purely tourism-cricket oriented."