TWO cricket fans watching the Ashes tour in Australia have proved they are barmy about biryani - by ordering a curry from their favourite restaurant back home.

Staff at the Bengal Paradise in Brookmans Park could not believe their ears when they received a call from regular customers and Barmy Army members Jason Morin and John Clements, who were out in Adelaide watching the second Ashes test.

The pair told restaurant manager Raj Miah they were so desperate for a decent curry that they would pay for a chef to be flown 10,000 miles to cook for them at a cost of £1,500.

Mr Miah, 36, said: "I was shocked, just completely shocked.

"They're both regular customers and come in most weekends. We hadn't seen them for a couple of weeks but we didn't realise they were out in Australia watching the cricket.

"They said there were ten of them out there and asked whether our head chef could prepare some food and fly it out to them.

"Unfortunately we couldn't afford to let our head chef go but I'm a trained chef so we decided the food would be made beforehand and I would fly out there with it and regenerate it for them."

The kitchen team at the Bengal Paradise will create the takeaway after close of business on Friday night and the food will then be specially packed and chilled ready for Mr Miah to fly out with it on Saturday.

The curry-crazy cricket fans have ordered a total of 33 main and side dishes, including five chicken tikka masalas, three lamb bhunas, a lamb shank, five bombay aloo and plenty of rice.

Speaking from Australia yesterday, Mr Morin, 38, who lives in Buntingford, said the gang could not wait to get their hands on the feast when it arrived in Perth, the location of the third Ashes test.

He said: "We tried a couple of places out here but we couldn't get anything as good as back home.

"It all started as a bit of a laugh really but we thought we'd call Raj and give it a go, and he said it seemed feasible. Between ten of us the cost isn't too bad so we thought, Why not?' "The cricket's been pretty terrible but the weather's great and now we've got a curry on the way.

"We can't wait - it's going to be fantastic."