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By Phil Long
BBC Sport Online's man with the Barmy Army |
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With the Ashes gone for at least another couple of years, those England supporters planning a full six month tour of duty incorporating the World Cup have been seeking some light relief.
The original allocation of England tickets for the tournament were snapped up back in July, and the results of a random draw for the remaining tickets were published on the internet last week.
And so, internet cafes across Perth were populated by small pockets of fans hoping they had been lucky.
Amazingly, most of us had, only for our first cries of joy on this long, long Ashes tour to quickly turn to grunts of mild displeasure.
 There are plenty of seats to watch Holland
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To cut a long story short, if it's tickets for England versus Holland or Namibia you're after then I suspect you'll find plenty of fans with spares available - including, rumour has it, one girl from England who has 50 of them.
But if you want to go to the games against India, Pakistan and Australia, then make sure you're in the queue behind me!
The only thing that has forced a smile on the faces of many of the English supporters out here has been the sports pages of the Australian press.
Firstly, there's been a daily plea from Australian cricketers and politicians alike to allow the Ashes urn to leave its spiritual home at Lords and be allowed to reside Down Under.
However, as the Barmy Army have constantly reminded their Aussie counterparts on the grassy banks at Adelaide and Perth, no matter what the score in this series: "They stay at Lord's...Ashes stay at Lord's!"
 Steve Waugh is desperate to play in the World Cup
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That hasn't stopped various newspapers from Perth to Sydney from running pointless phone-in polls with the amazing findings that 92% (or some such figure) of Aussies want the Ashes on home soil.
The other cricketing story dominating the back pages - other than the daily 'Is the worst Poms team EVER?' headlines- is the seemingly desperate attempt to get Steve Waugh into the Australian World Cup squad.
Once again the sports editors of tabloids all over the country have resorted to phone-in polls, allowing to run classic headlines such as "We say the Waugh isn't over" or "Please, please, please pick our oldest Waugh veteran".
I don't for minute think he will be there but, hold on, I wonder if he's got any spare tickets?
You can contact Phil in Australia by emailing:
a_longwayfromhome@hotmail.com
