In a country of baseball fanatics, Hanshin Tigers supporters are known as Japan's rowdiest -- so they are aching to cut loose as a pandemic ban on cheering drags into a third season. In pre-coronavirus times, the Tigers' Koshien Stadium near Osaka was a riot of noise and colour with fans shouting, singing and playing trumpets in fervent support of their team. But since Covid they have been silenced and their voices replaced by recorded chants piped into the stands through loudspeakers after cheering was banned at Japanese sports stadiums to combat the virus.

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