How big is cricket in India? My friend Tushar Lowalekar sent me this lovely first person account a few days ago. I reproduce it verbatim here. Thanks Tushar!
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I was in Delhi on Wednesday & Thursday (the day when India was to play Australia in Ahmedabad). On Wednesday evening, after our work session was over, a few colleagues from across the country sat down for a drink. I met many of these people after months so we got talking. A nice guy from Mumbai asked me which flight was I taking on my way back home. I replied "Kingfisher". On which he said "I wish we had taken Kingfisher (KF). We are flying Jet". Now normally had anyone else said this I could have easily attributed this to the smartly dressed air hostesses, but I knew this guy well to not expect this from him. Also, Jet is not a bad airline in itself! To add to this quandry, a female colleague, again from Mumbai, said "Yeah, even I feel we should have booked on KF but our travel desk did not even seek our opinion". Now this clearly took the mickey out of me! So I ended up asking them why was it so. "Cricket match hai na?", "So?", "Are sir, KF mein live TV hota hai, you will get to watch cricket the match between India & Australia". Now that explained.
On Thursday, (the day of the match), at the end of our work session around 5:00 in the evening, our Country Head walked in and thanked all of us for having taken time out to travel to Delhi and Blah! Blah! Blah! Then he turned to the person responsible for organising the session & said "I hope you are not going to repeat the mistake of organising such a session again on the 30th. Man, all of these guys will be travelling back, when they should be watching India play. You did not think of this small inconvenience?" I was amused.
India started playing Australia and I started for the airport from Gurgaon. The Travel House cab, did not have any music in the car. Instead, the radio was blaring the running commentary! Now I am not much of a cricket buff, but boy, the tempo was starting to build. I checked into the airport to realise that there was a lot of commotion in one part of T3. Curiously I walked towards the crowd only to realise that a large TV screen was set up right in the middle, no sound, just the picture, and there were some 200 people around it watching th match. Sachin was still playing then. The PA system was making constant announcements of last and final boarding calls and I could see some peole scurry towards th boarding gates. I hoped that they did not miss their flights.
I boarded the craft. KF. Full service. I got a middle sit unfortunately. The guy to my right was an Indian and to my left, a Korean.The Indian guy got a call on his mobile, probably from his wife, to ask about flight status so that he could be picked up from Pune airport. Without answering those questions, he enquired "Score kaay jhala? Kaay? Oh! Fuck! These guys are going to make it difficult. I hope they don't throw away the match. Fuck!!! Bara, send the driver at 11:30. I should reach by then." The Korean did not understand the reason for the excitement. The Indian turned to the airhostess and requested her to turn on the entertainment console so that he could watch the match. The lady very politely said, "Sir, the Sat TV is down. The unit is not functional." "What?". I could not hold a chuckle back but fought hard. The lady turned up very genuine smile and told me, "But you don't worry sir. Once we are airborne, the captain will keep announcing scores. He did that on the previous flight too!". I couldn't help but laugh.
We were airborne in a while. India was at 230 then. From there on, every 10 minutes or so the captain's voice crackled over the PA " We are in the 42nd over and need 30 runs to win." "We are now at 251 at the end of 45th over". We had hit an air pocket. The automated system was announcing the bad weather. The captain was announcing the score. The airhostesses were collecting back the trays, he was evaluating options. "We need 24 off 30 balls" We were flying somewhere over Kota then. He seemed inclined to turn the aircraft towards Ahmedabad if required, if the Indian team did not measure up to his exacting standards. "India achieved the target in 47.5 overs. We win the match by 5 wickets" There was an applause in the cabin. We continued on our path to Pune. The Indian heaved a sigh of relief. I started wondering on what is cricket? Is it a religion? Naah! Regardless of the communal track record, we are not so passionate about our religion ofcourse. Why, we don't even remember God as many times as we check the cricket score during a match? This has to be much more than religion. Even if I am not so much of a cricket fan I could sense that.
The Korean, not understanding any of this, kept a straight face and kept on staring ahead! Afterall, you need to be an Indian to sense this excitement !
___________________________________________
I was in Delhi on Wednesday & Thursday (the day when India was to play Australia in Ahmedabad). On Wednesday evening, after our work session was over, a few colleagues from across the country sat down for a drink. I met many of these people after months so we got talking. A nice guy from Mumbai asked me which flight was I taking on my way back home. I replied "Kingfisher". On which he said "I wish we had taken Kingfisher (KF). We are flying Jet". Now normally had anyone else said this I could have easily attributed this to the smartly dressed air hostesses, but I knew this guy well to not expect this from him. Also, Jet is not a bad airline in itself! To add to this quandry, a female colleague, again from Mumbai, said "Yeah, even I feel we should have booked on KF but our travel desk did not even seek our opinion". Now this clearly took the mickey out of me! So I ended up asking them why was it so. "Cricket match hai na?", "So?", "Are sir, KF mein live TV hota hai, you will get to watch cricket the match between India & Australia". Now that explained.
On Thursday, (the day of the match), at the end of our work session around 5:00 in the evening, our Country Head walked in and thanked all of us for having taken time out to travel to Delhi and Blah! Blah! Blah! Then he turned to the person responsible for organising the session & said "I hope you are not going to repeat the mistake of organising such a session again on the 30th. Man, all of these guys will be travelling back, when they should be watching India play. You did not think of this small inconvenience?" I was amused.
India started playing Australia and I started for the airport from Gurgaon. The Travel House cab, did not have any music in the car. Instead, the radio was blaring the running commentary! Now I am not much of a cricket buff, but boy, the tempo was starting to build. I checked into the airport to realise that there was a lot of commotion in one part of T3. Curiously I walked towards the crowd only to realise that a large TV screen was set up right in the middle, no sound, just the picture, and there were some 200 people around it watching th match. Sachin was still playing then. The PA system was making constant announcements of last and final boarding calls and I could see some peole scurry towards th boarding gates. I hoped that they did not miss their flights.
I boarded the craft. KF. Full service. I got a middle sit unfortunately. The guy to my right was an Indian and to my left, a Korean.The Indian guy got a call on his mobile, probably from his wife, to ask about flight status so that he could be picked up from Pune airport. Without answering those questions, he enquired "Score kaay jhala? Kaay? Oh! Fuck! These guys are going to make it difficult. I hope they don't throw away the match. Fuck!!! Bara, send the driver at 11:30. I should reach by then." The Korean did not understand the reason for the excitement. The Indian turned to the airhostess and requested her to turn on the entertainment console so that he could watch the match. The lady very politely said, "Sir, the Sat TV is down. The unit is not functional." "What?". I could not hold a chuckle back but fought hard. The lady turned up very genuine smile and told me, "But you don't worry sir. Once we are airborne, the captain will keep announcing scores. He did that on the previous flight too!". I couldn't help but laugh.
We were airborne in a while. India was at 230 then. From there on, every 10 minutes or so the captain's voice crackled over the PA " We are in the 42nd over and need 30 runs to win." "We are now at 251 at the end of 45th over". We had hit an air pocket. The automated system was announcing the bad weather. The captain was announcing the score. The airhostesses were collecting back the trays, he was evaluating options. "We need 24 off 30 balls" We were flying somewhere over Kota then. He seemed inclined to turn the aircraft towards Ahmedabad if required, if the Indian team did not measure up to his exacting standards. "India achieved the target in 47.5 overs. We win the match by 5 wickets" There was an applause in the cabin. We continued on our path to Pune. The Indian heaved a sigh of relief. I started wondering on what is cricket? Is it a religion? Naah! Regardless of the communal track record, we are not so passionate about our religion ofcourse. Why, we don't even remember God as many times as we check the cricket score during a match? This has to be much more than religion. Even if I am not so much of a cricket fan I could sense that.
The Korean, not understanding any of this, kept a straight face and kept on staring ahead! Afterall, you need to be an Indian to sense this excitement !
