My First Visit to the Stadium

India had just had a dream run at the T20 World Cup, and all of India was still celebrating. As teams India and Australia came to Bangalore for the first of the seven match ODI series, we all in our office decided that we must witness some of the magic. Two days before the match, our Director told us that he knew someone at the Stadium and could get a couple of tickets. But a couple of tickets was too less for the number of people who wanted to watch the match. So, we all decided that we will contact as many people as we know to get as many tickets. Finally, the day before the match, we could manage only four tickets. Then on the morning of hte match, with some more PR effort, we were told that we could get two more tickets through someone, but since there was no time, we were asked to collect the tickets at the stadium near the entrance. We were asked to call on the mobile once we reached the stadium.

The match was to start at 2:30 pm but we decided to start by 11:30 am. There were two reasons for starting three hours early. The first reason was that since it is very difficult to get a parking space anywhere near the stadium, we need to park somewhere safe. We had decided to park at an office parking lot where our Director had previously worked, and since the security staff there knew us pretty well, our vehicles would be safe. But this office was a good distance away from the stadium, so we had to walk for almost 30 minutes to reach the stadium. The second reason for our early start was that for us to have a chance to get the seats of our choice, we need to be there before others arrive. So, we decided to start early. And we had made a good decision, we got seats just 10 rows from the boundary. As we sat there, we realized that we were next to the practice nets of the Indian team. For the first time in my life, I was inside the Stadium with an audience of about 50,000 watching an international ODI match, LIVE, and I had made up my mind that I will enjoy this as much as I can.

We were sitting next to a group of a dozen college girls and boys who had come with their parents, basically they were a big family. The entire stadium was making so much noise screaming, you got it, "Chak De India". As the Indian team was practicing at the nets near our stand, we were all screaming the names of players who came near the boundary. Sometimes "Sourav, Sourav,...", sometimes "Sachin, Sachin,..", and sometimes "Rahul, Rahul,..." But the best of it all was when Romesh Powar came closer and all of a sudden the crowd started shouting "Ganpati Bappa Moriya, Ganpati Bappa Moria". That was very funny but to be honest with you, all he lacked was a tusk to disprove what we all were shouting.

Watching the match at the stadium means that you do not get to hear any expert commentry, the pitch report, or even what the captains say at the time of the toss. All you get to see on the giant electronic screen is "Australia has won the toss and decided to bat". Till about 2 pm, we saw the players playing their shots and bowling at the practice nets. Finally, at about 2:30 pm, we saw the umpires and the Indian fielders walking out on to the field. As they entered the ground, the stadium just erupted with everyone screaming. And then Gilchrist and Hayden entered. The match started. I do not want to talk about the scores or the scoring shots as I am sure you would have seen the match on TV. All I want to express here is the atmosphere in the stadium, as Ravi Shastri puts it, it was electrifying. Just then Gili hit a square cut and Yuvi dived at it and caught the ball. It was really amazing to watch it, and as you expect, the entire stadium erupted with people screaming "Ya", "Ooooo" and what not, someone brought a bugle and was making more noice than music, some had whistles. All in all, it was just fun to make so much noise and no one would tell you to keep quiet. Then the match just progressed with batsmen scoring runs and wickets falling every now and then. One thing I realized is that when I watch the match on TV at home, we have a sense of what the score is, which team is in control, and stuff, but when you are at the stadium, you are celebrating every effort put in by the Indian team without realizing that the batsmen are also scoring at a run rate of 6 per over. Every now and then when we looked at the electronic score board, we would see that it was 50-60 more than the last time we saw it. At home, on TV, we would track every run scored by the team, but at the stadium, no one really cared. We just enjoyed the match screaming, shouting, and whistling.

Finally, the Australian innings was over and just before that we had managed to get some nice lunch at the stadium Snack Bar. Then came the Indian innings, and as Sachin and Gambhir walked in, you got it, the stadium erupted again. We all were on our feet, screaming "Sachin, Sachin,.." Sometimes I wonder, how can they concentrate on batting with all the noise around, but I guess you just get used to it. Well, as fast as he walked on to the pitch, Sachin departed, declared LBW, it was plumb in front of the wickets. Even now, the stadium was not as quiet as you would expect, maybe less noisy but still noisy. Just then it started raining and players walking back into their dressing rooms. During the time it was raining, someone decided that it was too boring to watch the rain and threw a huge balloon in to the air. As it came down on to the crowd, it would be punched back up. It kept going up and down. But then, there was a police guy who did not like all this, and he just grabbed it and blew it. Well, they were given the job of protecting against bombs and stuff. But seriously, what threat is a balloon? And definitely, the way it was flying in the air, it could not have had any bomb inside. Now, the real fun started. As the police guy was relaxed that the balloon was out of his radar, someone threw another balloon, and this time there was such a roar in our stands punching the balloon that the everyone wanted to join the party. As people punched the balloon, the police guy returned wanting to get hold of it, but everyone in the crowd ensured that the balloon is away from this guy. Even some of the other police constables were punching it away from him, it was so funny. We were just screaming and screaming all the time.

Luckily, the rain stopped and drying machines came on to do their job. It was a great effort on the part of the groundsmen who did a great job of drying up the ground, but sadly the captains decided not to play and the match was abandoned. The elecronic screen said "The match has been abandoned due to wet outfield." After this, we all started moving out. By the end of the day, after all the screaming that we did during the afternoon, we were exhausted and totally dehydrated, with severe headache. And the worst part was that our vehicles were a long 30 minutes away and we had to walk till there. In the afternoon, it did not look like much of a distance to walk, but now it felt like a very long distance away.

All in all, my first experience at the stadium was amazing. Given a chance again, I would be there screaming and shouting the same way I did on September 29, 2007.