A fairytale ending and sometimes dreams do come true!

The winning feeling

Dreams do indeed come true. When they do they have the ability to make grown men cry and break into a jig at the same time. To use a cliché, this was a dream shared by more than a billion Indians. It probably meant more to the millions of my generation who weren’t born or were too young to remember the triumph of 1983.
 I started following cricket from the late 80s and the early 90s and grew up on a diet of humiliating away-losses and close games frittered away. I saw India gift away games to Henry Olonga in the 1999 World Cup, to Saqlain Mushtaq in the 1997 test vs Pakistan in Chennai, to West Indies in Barbados in 1997, to any damn Pakistani bowler in any match in Sharjah. The only consolation used to be watching Sachin Tendulkar play dazzling knocks and fight lone battles for the country in defeat.

Then along came Saurav Ganguly and John Wright. We still lost from winning positions but the frequency of those abject collapses reduced and we started winning more often than we lost, in a lot of cases from seemingly hopeless positions. Whether it was the Eden Gardens test of 2001 vs Australia, the chase of 325 at Lord’s in 2002 or the Adelaide test vs. Australia in 2003, we found heroes for the occasion and more often than not Sachin just played bit parts in these memorable victories. Still we continued to switch off our TVs or walk out of the stadia when he got out, not recognizing the change that our team was going through.

On 2nd April 2011 that change came to a full circle. Chasing 275 in a World Cup final we lost Sehwag and Sachin with just 31 on the board. The crowd went hush and you could literally see the defeat in most people’s eyes. It didn’t help that a large chunk of the crowd was made up of 30 year olds like me and older. All the old fears came rushing back. 225 was the highest score chased under lights at the Wankhede, 241 was the highest ever chased in a World Cup Final, no team with a centurion had lost a World Cup final. We knew all that but probably Gautam Gambhir didn’t. Neither did Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni or Yuvraj Singh. Even if they did, it didn’t seem to matter. History is there to be made, not to get bogged down by. Slowly but surely as Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli built the inning, the belief in the crowd came back. The dream was still alive.

MS Dhoni, in the company of Gautam Gambhir, took us close and finished it off appropriately with Yuvraj Singh, the Man of the tournament, on the other end. The six and THAT twirl (External link: Open in new window) of the bat has signalled the start of the era of uber cool and mentally tough Team India.

Since I decided to follow India for the World Cup, I had dreamt about the winning moment multiple times. Each time there had been tears but surprisingly on Saturday night it was pure unadulterated joy. I was jumping up and down, shrieking “India.. India” and high fiving complete strangers once the six was hit. Till they showed, on the big screen at the ground, a smiling Sachin run onto the field. A roar went up and I could feel the first few tears stream down my cheeks.

After the victory lap with SRT on his shoulder, Virat Kohli put it aptly when he said “Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It is time we carried him on our shoulders.” Looking at all the pictures of Sachin enjoying the win, it is clear what this win meant to him, but it is also apt that Sachin himself played a bit part in the final. By winning this match as a team, by showing the steel that they did, MS Dhoni and his team ensured that from now on there would not be any more Indian cricket fans, including those from my generation, who would switch off their TV sets or walk out from stadiums when an individual gets out.

Indian National Anthem

 

Dhoni hits the winning six

 

Sachin Tendulkar's lap on Kohli's shoulder

 

The day had started with another early morning flight from Delhi. I was quite apprehensive about my back holding up for the entire day where I would have to take a 2 hour flight, another hour in the taxi before queuing up for entry into the stadium and then 8 hours of jumping up and down from my seat hoping to celebrate an Indian victory. Turns out the pain killers and the muscle relaxants worked like a charm and not only was I able to do all that but was able to follow it up with another 4 hours of partying with friends late into the night.

I had sprained my back the previous Sunday and had been bed-ridden and immobile for the rest of the week. I was gutted about having to give up my tickets for the Semi-Final and there was no way in the world I was missing the final for anything.

My friend Sudhir with Merv Hughes

I reached the stadium at around 12noon and was only able to get into the stadium by 1:45pm. Everyone in the queue though was good natured and surprisingly there was absolutely no pushing and shoving. I was also surprised to find Merv Hughes in the queue behind us. Merv was leading a contingent of around 20 odd Aussies who were travelling around India watching the knock out phase of the tournament. The entire group had travelled to both the semi-finals in Colombo and Mohali so that they could be sure of watching the Australia semi-final but for a change had ended up being disappointed. Not many people recognized Merv but there was a literal stampede as Gilchrist was escorted past us into the stadium.

Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

The Wankhede was completely rebuilt for this tournament and the designers have done an excellent job. The design is very modern and spectator friendly as there are absolutely no pillars in the top tiers. There are a few pillars in the lower tiers but the design is such that there is hardly any obstruction of view for the spectators (DDCA please take note!!). The stands rise steeply over the ground and the stadium gives the impression of being larger than the quoted capacity of 33,000. The media stand enclosed by glass looked amazing till the high humidity in the evening coupled with the air conditioning inside fogged up the glass completely. For the last 15-20 overs of the match, two men were permanently positioned hanging in mid air to keep clearing up the glass from the outside.

Surprisingly for Mumbai, the food and drink situation was as bad as all other venues. There was no proper food other than samosas and sandwiches which also ran out within the first 15 overs of India’s batting. The same was the case with the soft drinks, all that remained after 8pm was the free water provided by the organizers.

Observing the celebrations first-hand

The atmosphere inside the stadium was somewhat flat for a World Cup final but to an extent I would put that down to being spoilt by the fantastic atmosphere in Ahmedabad and the nerves that all of us in the crowd were also feeling. In spite of the enormity of the occasion, Jayawardene was given a standing ovation when he reached his century. I have heard many people comment about the fact that Indian crowds don’t applaud the opposition. It has been my personal experience at all the games that opposition centuries and good performances have been always applauded by one and all with standing ovations. Even Ricky Ponting was given a standing ovation after his century in Ahmedabad even though he is clearly not popular with Indian crowds and booed throughout the game.

The contrast between the “shout yourself hoarse” cheering that accompanies an Indian 50 or 100 against the English style applause for opposition good performances probably gives the impression that Indian crowds don’t appreciate opposition performances. Probably if we in India tone down our cheering for India the contrast won’t be as obvious but I for one don’t see that happening in the near future.

During the innings break most people thought Lanka had got too many but were quietly optimistic about India’s ability to chase down the target. The stadium was eerily quiet after Sachin’s dismissal but the noise and the belief gradually built up during the Gambhir and Kohli partnership. Singles and doubles were cheered raucously and when Dhoni started hitting Murali for boundaries the crescendo built up. The crowd exploded with THAT six and the party began in true earnest. Not one person left the stadium till the presentation and victory laps were completed. Some 20 odd spectators actually jumped over the fences into the playing area and were chased around by the police. One spectator raced down to the pitch and bent down to kiss the turf, only that he had mistaken one of the practice wickets for the main pitch, not that it mattered to him.

The roads outside the stadium were jammed and we took the train to Bandra before meeting up with friends to celebrate long into the night. Wearing my India t-shirt, with the flag and painted face I was stopped by numerous people on the road for pictures.
The happy ending made the journey that started on 19th February in Dhaka all the more worthwhile. Along with Johannesburg in 2007, I have now seen India win two World Cups in 4 years and am completely hooked to this experience. While I make my plans for the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka next year and the next Cricket World Cup in Australia-New Zealand in 2015, I would like to put on record the fact that given the right perks, I am open to offers from the BCCI for being India’s official lucky mascot at ICC events :)

The World Cup maybe over but I will try and make sense of my experiences at stadiums across the country starting with a post on the good, the bad and the ugly of this entire campaign next week.

What a game!!

What a game!! My emotions went through the entire roller coaster of ecstasy as Sachin Tendulkar made his 98^th international hundred and India put in a supreme batting performance, despondency as England for all money looked to be on course to win with overs to spare, hope for a great England collapse always remained at the back of my mind and the sheer delirium of THOSE overs when India almost looked like they pulled off a Houdini. In the end I think the tie was a fair result that left both teams satisfied with the extra point, after having lost all hopes of a win at separate junctures during the game, while at the same time feeling hard done by for not delivering the killer blow that would have landed them full points.

Chinnaswamy Stadium Map

The day had started in complete contrast with a 1km long queue that took us more than an hour to negotiate to get into the stadium from Gate 16. I went for the game with a friend, Advit Sahdev and was lucky that he found a friend in the queue, which we joined midway with him at about 1250pm entering the stadium at about 2pm. I was reading reports of the thousands of people who ended up in the same queue outside gate 16 and ended up missing a significant part of India’s innings. It is with great amusement that I read KSCA spokesperson Sujith Somasundar’s statement regarding the last minute sale of online tickets as being the reason for the delay in entry when it took just me just 10 minute outside the stadium conversing with locals to understand the real reason behind the insane queuing time.

Gate 16 catered to the entire H & G stand with a capacity of over 11,250 spectators as mentioned by Sujith Somasundar. Due to the ongoing work at the Bangalore metro adjoining the stadium the entire area behind the North & East stand, where gates are usually in operation on that side of the stadium, was cordoned off. For the equivalent area catering to stands A,B,C,D,E,P3 and P4 there were 5 gates (Gates 11-15) that I walked past where the queues were obviously much more manageable. Is it too much to expect organizers at the Chinnaswamy to think of these issues and put measures in place to ensure that the paying spectators are not inconvenienced?

Stand G at the beginning of game

To top it all there was no numbered seating at any of the stands except for the VIP seats. So after the struggle with getting into the stadium, one was faced with the next struggle of locating seats together in a reasonable location where the view was not obstructed by the huge pillars that seem to be a major part of the DNA of Chinnaswamy stadium. We struggled around for another 20 minutes to find decent seats before the police opened the gates between stand G (which was completely empty) and stand H (for which we had tickets, but which was overflowing with spectators). We finally ended up with fantastic seats with a great side on view of proceedings. What did surprise me however were the number of empty seats when the match started. While the spectators making a delayed entry played a part, a large number of seats were still empty for the duration of the game, which I found a little surprising given the entire madness around the sale of tickets of Bangalore that led to the lathi-charge the day tickets went on sale.

Still empty seats with India 16/0

Indian National Anthem - DO NOT MISS, followed by World Cup theme song

The average Indian cricket fan takes all these inconveniences in his stride and continues to throng the stadiums. I had taken the morning 645am flight from Delhi to Bangalore and came across 4-5 diverse groups of people, father/son, 5-6 office colleagues, 3-4 DINKY (Double Income No Kids.. Yet) couples, who were travelling to Bangalore for the match. The number of travelling supporters for the Indian team might actually not be as small as I think it is and I plan to keep my eyes and ears open to check more of this phenomenon in the matches to come.

The fans, BCCI take notice

The fan story that tugged my heart was of this elderly gentleman seated right next to me who had come to watch the game with his nephew. The gentleman was more than 75 years in age, walked with a very slow shuffle but without the aid of a walking stick and was carrying his dentures with him. He lives with his family in the USA but was in India to attend the funeral of a cousin who had passed away and was leaving for the US the day after the match. He wanted to attend the match as he felt this would be his last opportunity to do so in India. He and his nephew had bought tickets in black from outside the stadium, braved the queue, the heat and the struggle to find a seat inside the stadium. They could not find 2 seats together and while the gentleman sat next to us his nephew ended up sitting in the row behind us. Right after Sachin’s century he asked me for my flag and got on his feet to wave the flag while getting his photograph clicked, with the enthusiasm of a 10 year old, to the loudest cheer of the night from the gallery that we were seated in. I hope Sharad Pawar, Ratnakar Shetty and their ilk in the BCCI sometimes get the opportunity to get away from their AC boxes and their pressing engagements of hobnobbing with the glitterati to spend some time with the real fans. Probably spending a day at a game without their AC boxes, catered food and reserved parking, queuing up like mere mortals is what is required to sensitize them to the improvements that are required to make attending a game a family event for the ordinary spectator rather than the ordeal it is currently.

Sachin moves from 95 to 102, century reached at 1:20 

This was my first time watching a match away from centers in the North. I have seen international matches in Delhi, Faridabad and Mohali and the first thing that struck me about the crowd in Bangalore was their fairness. The crowd was decent enough to remain silent during England’s national anthem and applaud when the anthem was completed. In spite of the likeliness of an upset increasing with each passing landmark the crowd was generous in its applause for all landmarks reached by Strauss (including the reasonably insignificant landmark, in the context of the game, for 4000 runs in ODI cricket) and the rest of the batsmen. During the now infamous Bell UDRS review, chants of “Cheating.. Cheating” broke out from all around the stadium. Strauss was about to reach his century in the over or two after the botched review and I was thinking that the crowd might end up booing him, the mighty applause he got for his century put those fears to rest. A word though about the review, no-one in the stadium knew about the 2.5m rule and everyone in the stadium was perplexed about why Bell was called back. It was only after 3-4 overs post the event that I got to know the reason for Bell getting the review in his favour, after speaking to a friend over the phone. A similar event in the knock-out stage vs Pakistan could very well lead to a riot, stadium authorities would do well to take some steps about keeping the spectators informed lest emotions boil over a la Kolkata in 1996.

 A small but boisterous section of the Barmy Army was also sitting in our side of the stands. They were singing quite a few of their patented chants but the “Cheerios Cheerios” chant on the dismissal of every Indian batsman is something that caught the fancy of the locals who made a “See you.. See You” chant of their own to sing after every English dismissal. During THOSE overs of the batting powerplay that changed the game, the chants, singing and dancing took on an almost manic, intoxicated nature with the crowd feeding off the energy of one another to create an atmosphere I have never ever experienced at any sporting event in spite of having been lucky enough to have been present, among others,  when Kumble took all 10 vs Pakistan, when Yuvi hit those 6 sixes or when India won the T20 World Cup.

Crowd chants as Zaheer bowls during the batting powerplay

Video of last ball as the match is tied

DND, Consultant at work

Inspite of the “action every ball” nature of this match and the sometimes frenzied atmosphere, I found time for a few snoozes here and there. It had been a crazy week in which I travelled to Mumbai on Wednesday night for a team offsite returning at almost midnight on Saturday night before waking up at 445am to take the 630am flight to Bangalore. Consecutive nights from Wed to Sat with 4hr, 6hr, 4.5hr, 4.5hr of sleep interspersed with boozy, networking nights at the offsite had taken a toll before I arrived in Bangalore and while that is probably not a valid excuse I guess age is catching up. So the next time a TV camera zooms on a spectator snoozing in the most exciting phase of the match, don’t laugh, he might be a consultant balancing his working lifestyle with the love of following his favourite team in action :) Thankfully, I now get a weekend off to recover (flying all the way back to Bangalore for Ireland didn’t seem worth it) and will be attending India vs Netherland in Delhi on the 9th of March, work permitting.

Let the games begin!!

Last year after Sachin’s 200 vs South Africa, I was convinced that the 2011 was going to be India’s year as Sachin HAS to be a part of a world cup winning squad. I think he has been saving himself in ODIs with the sole aim of being a part of a world cup winning squad which has been one of the motivators that has kept him going in the last few years. It strikes me as surprising that he played just 2 ODIs last year and I think I will stand by what I wrote last year, that if India wins the World Cup then Sachin will announce his retirement from ODI cricket.

Since then, an additional factor that will make this an interesting world cup to follow from a personal point of view would be to see Sachin score his 100th international hundred. I was lucky enough to witness his 50th test hundred in Centurion and to witness the 100th international hundred would be another pilgrimage ticked off in support of the only god I have believed in.

Since making this plan in March last year, I bought tickets on 1st June 2010 ,the day the tickets went on sale at kyazoonga.com, for all of India’s matches (except for the game vs Ireland in Bengaluru on 6th March) till the quarter final. So starting from tomorrow, I will be travelling to one of the venues every weekend (except the weekend of the 6th) to watch India keep its date with destiny on 2nd April 2010. I travel to Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla stadium to watch the opening game of the 2011 world cup tomorrow.

The organizers were kind enough to help me organize this itinerary by scheduling all of India’s matches over the weekend so that taking time off from work is not a variable to worry about for the group matches. The only India game on a weekday is vs Netherlands, which in the worst case scenario would mean missing one inning of the match if I cant take the day off. However, this is where the kindness of the organizers stopped for me. I have visited various other sporting events such as the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2006 and 2010 football world cups, the Euro 2008, US Open etc but I am yet to come across a more mismanaged tournament from a spectator point of view.

Which other ‘global’ tournament would have:

1. Tickets for the semi final and the final not go on sale by the start of the tournament. Yes the tickets for the semi final and final are yet to go on sale and the organizers have not seen it fit to inform the public on when they intend to. From what I read in the newspapers just 4000 tickets for the world cup final would come on sale, but there doesn’t seem to be any transparency on when and how would the sale take place.

2. Matches rescheduled a month before they take place. I (and 10 other friends) had bought tickets for the India vs England game at the Eden Gardens and made our travel and stay arrangements only for the game to be shifted a month before the start of the world cup. The organizaers have been kind enough to let me exchange my tickets for the game in Bangalore but with just a week to go I have no information regarding the stand I would be seated in. I would also need to get in a collection queue on the day of the game to get my ticket as there isn’t enough time for the tickets to be couriered. Given the number of people who would have had their tickets transferred in this manner I predict major chaos on the day of the day.

3. De-centralization of printing of tickets. Each venue/state association is printing its own tickets and sending them to Kyazoonga, the ticketing partner, as per their own timelines. With the world cup starting tomorrow, Kyazoonga is yet to receive tickets from Mohali, Chennai, Nagpur, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad etc. Due to this for people who booked tickets for matches at multiple venues on Kyazoonga the tickets can only be dispatched once all of them become available. I had to personally go to the Kyazoonga office near Defence Colony to collect my India vs Bangladesh match tickets. The rest of my tickets will only be couriered to me once all state associations can get their acts together and print tickets for all the matches taking place at their venue. While this is still not a game changer for me, I shudder to think of the pain that overseas visitors, some of whom would probably have left for India, would be going through to track their consignments as Kyazoonga’s customer care is permanently on hold given the high number of queries they are getting. Already there are reports coming from Dhaka and Bangalore about the high number of tickets available for sale in the black market, I am sure a significant chunk of that is ending up in the pockets of those running these associations.

4. Absolutely no on-ground activation to build excitement among the general public. There are no banners, hoardings welcoming teams anywhere in Delhi (South Africa and West Indies are probably based in Delhi right now), all I see are some ESPN Star Sports world cup hoardings outside their office HQ in Gurgaon and Stumpy (the mascot) countdown watches at some malls. While the world cup is all over the media, it could for all practical purposes be taking place anywhere else in the world rather than the cities we live in. I recently travelled from Delhi to Ahmedabad, both host cities, and was surprised at the lack of any world cup posters welcoming the 15000 odd travelling coming over to India for the Cup or merchandise in airport shops.

I can’t think of a more backward looking organization than the BCCI to be at the forefront of internationally administering a sport on the basis of their financial muscle. However, in spite of all these challenges we, the people, would continue to throng the stadiums to be pushed around (if you are luck, lathi charged if you are not) by the police at all venues and spend the entire day packed in like sardines in stadiums having dirty bathrooms, unhygienic food and water. It is this irrational support that makes the India fan the creature he is who then vents out all his frustration by burning down the stadiums when India lose a la Kolkata 1996.

The lucky Indian flag I bought in South Africa before the India vs England (Yuvi 6 sixes!!) game in Durban, that was my constant companion as I watched India take out South Africa, Australia and Pakistan to win the T20 World Cup, has been packed along with my lucky Indian jersey (the old light blue one) as I travel to Dhaka tomorrow. I don’t know if we will end up yet again (1987, 1996) as the (semi-finalist) bridesmaid at a home world cup or if we will go one better than 2003, but I do know that it will be a roller coaster 6 weeks that I plan to make the most of.

PS: Just saw this article on rediff about the absence of the buzz i spoke about in Delhi, Mumbai