The Eden Fiasco
The day was Thursday, fag end of the week but not yet a weekend. But does it matter? Eden Gardens was loaded to full capacity, almost 90,000 people were there to watch India Vs Sri Lanka, a match scheduled almost after 15 months. We Calcuttans would have lost out on this one too if Mr. Prasun Mukherjee wasn't elected as the CAB president after Mr. Dalmiya was ousted from the BCCI. The re-scheduled venue was a gift from Mr. Sharad Pawar and he was there personally to grace the occasion.
The forecast for the day was always gloomy with rain being predicted for the last 2-3 days in a row. Murphy's Law worked again ( i guess thats why its called a LAW), it didn't rain the previous days as much as it rained on the match day. It poured for 45 minutes. It was enough.
I was there as a spectator, paid 2000 bucks for a good view and parking stickers came free. Was all set but the rain god had different plans. It was surprising to see how ill prepared the CAB authorities were to tackle the situation. The ground had just 1 super sopper, while the other was parked 20kms away in a university ground. If rain was predicted all the time, why wasn't it transported back to the main venue? The lone super sopper had no chance. While waiting in the stands, an image flashed across my mind where helicopters were used at a ground (not indian) to dry up the field. I was wondering aloud why couldn't BBCI & CAB do the same? After all, we are the richest board in the world. If nothing else, we could have even got a sponsorship for it !!
Before the last inspection at 8:30pm, the ground looked quite dry and the covers had been removed. Looked like we have an match on our hands. But then Rahul Dravid took a round and shook hands with the umpires, thats when I knew it was all over. But I wouldnt move yet, I wanted to see it written across the big scoreboard till I budged, and the still 60,000 strong crowd thought the same way. When it was flashed, we walked out chanting "Prasun Mukherjee Hai Hai". I didn't feel it was his fault, but it was my small redemption, some solace to my broken heart.
What others couldn't have seen on TV was the patince the crowd had while it waited 5 hours in the rain. We did our chants, we made those spell bounding Mexican waves and clapped for ourselves when it went like a current across the stands. Some eat desi pizza, some spat out paan, some chanted "Sania, Sania ...", some just cursed and cursed.
After I came back home, i was ambivalent. I couldnt see the match but somehow I had a good time :)
The forecast for the day was always gloomy with rain being predicted for the last 2-3 days in a row. Murphy's Law worked again ( i guess thats why its called a LAW), it didn't rain the previous days as much as it rained on the match day. It poured for 45 minutes. It was enough.
I was there as a spectator, paid 2000 bucks for a good view and parking stickers came free. Was all set but the rain god had different plans. It was surprising to see how ill prepared the CAB authorities were to tackle the situation. The ground had just 1 super sopper, while the other was parked 20kms away in a university ground. If rain was predicted all the time, why wasn't it transported back to the main venue? The lone super sopper had no chance. While waiting in the stands, an image flashed across my mind where helicopters were used at a ground (not indian) to dry up the field. I was wondering aloud why couldn't BBCI & CAB do the same? After all, we are the richest board in the world. If nothing else, we could have even got a sponsorship for it !!
Before the last inspection at 8:30pm, the ground looked quite dry and the covers had been removed. Looked like we have an match on our hands. But then Rahul Dravid took a round and shook hands with the umpires, thats when I knew it was all over. But I wouldnt move yet, I wanted to see it written across the big scoreboard till I budged, and the still 60,000 strong crowd thought the same way. When it was flashed, we walked out chanting "Prasun Mukherjee Hai Hai". I didn't feel it was his fault, but it was my small redemption, some solace to my broken heart.
What others couldn't have seen on TV was the patince the crowd had while it waited 5 hours in the rain. We did our chants, we made those spell bounding Mexican waves and clapped for ourselves when it went like a current across the stands. Some eat desi pizza, some spat out paan, some chanted "Sania, Sania ...", some just cursed and cursed.
After I came back home, i was ambivalent. I couldnt see the match but somehow I had a good time :)
posted by AJ at 9:55 PM
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