All these drills were supervised by the physio, bowling coach venky and the fielding coach robin singh. Around 8:30 am gautam gambhir strolled towards our stand and placed his gear next to the practise wicket just in front of our stand and joined the others in their game. After few minutes i couldnt believe what i was wirnessing.
The fab four were walking directly towards the practise wickets for a "hit-in". I was going to see all of them from a distance of 10 meters. I wasnt the only one who realised this. The half filled stand rose and went towards the enclosure that seperated the field from the stand and started shooting the players as they took guard and played a few strokes. First it was gautam gambhir and sehwag as they were supposed to open the batting. they had successfully played through the last evenings play and were set to consolidate the innings.
For the first time i felt let down by my trusted mobile. It was a 1.3 Mp camera that it had .. not worthwhile in clicking pictures if you have some distance in between you and the subject. There he was. Saching practising in front of me and i couldnt get a decent shot due to my stupid camera. With the insanely small amount of memory it had, i had to delete stuff even before i could click a picture!
Though i did manage to capture some videos of the master, they was grainy at best.
I saw them all bat. Dravid, Lakshman, Ganguly Dhoni et al. saw zaheer, ishant, amit mishra and kumble bowl. I was so thrilled that the ticket cost was recovered in the first hour itself before even a ball was bowled. Fully satisfied.
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Showing posts with label australia cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australia cricket. Show all posts
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Day at Chinnaswamy Stadium bangalore - Australia vs India- Part 2
Armed with the ticket for the 3rd Day of 1st Test match between India and Australia, I felt like i had wot the golden ticket to Willy Wonkas Chocolate factory. The day happened to be a saturday which meant i could freak out all i wanted as the next day was going to be a sunday.
Going to the stadium wasnt easy for me to say the least. I had been to the area around the Stadium a few times. But this time i had to be there early morning and that too using some mode of transport as it was pretty far away. My options were limited considering that i didnt have my own vehicle for transportation. That meant i either use an auto or a BMTC bus. Autos may be a convenient options elsewhere, but in bangalore you better be a millionaire to even consider traveling by it. Cos even if you are not, the autowallas assume you are some blue blooded fool ready to part with his money. The rates they quote shall either make your wallet lighter or force you to take the eco-friendly public transport. Hail the autowalla who cares for the environment!
So BMTC was the option for me. My source of truth was http://maps.google.com and http://bmtcinfo.com/ and http://btis.in/bus.htm . Excellent sites if you really want to go around in bangalore. route 138 it was for me then. I left at 7:30 am in the morning hoping to beat the rush. Luckily i got a bus as soon as i arrived at the bus stop and before i knew i had landed near the Chinnaswamy stadium.
The usually deserted road was transformed into a colourful melee of people, policemen, hawkers and blackmarketeers. With the match scheduled to start at 9:30 am, already i could see i was not the early bird at 7:45. large number of people were standing quietly in line waiting for the gates to open. I had got the tickets for the stand B (not to mention the cheapest ones). I had checked out the ground map earlier and had arrived at the conclusion that this was a good bet. and as i found out later, i wasnt wrong!
On figuring out that it was gate no 12 for me, i went upto the gate and started looking where the line ended. Strangely, there was no line at the gate! I wondered whether this really was the correct gate as the adjacent gate had a 100 meter queue already. My doubts were quelled when the guy at the ticket window confirmed that this indeed was the entrace to the stand A. I couldnt believe it. I was the first person to turn up in that particular stand. Not surprisingly though. I had arrived at the ground a 1:45 mins early.
As i stood there patiently thinking about how lucky i was to be the first one to enter the stand, i saw police men frisking away people anxious to get a ticket. The ticket window clearly displayed signes reading tickets were sold out. What an opporutnity for the black marketeers, i thought. I had experienced it myself the previous year during the last day of the test match between India and Pakistan. tickets were being sold at obnoxious prices a few meters away while the ticket windows shamelessly/helplessly/ignorantly displayed "sold out". What a shame. Paying a bribe to watch a sport thats considered a religion by us. In other words some black marketeer decides whether you can follow your religion or not. Utterly blasphemous.
Finally the gates opened and i was let in. There was thorough frisking of me,my bag and the result of which i had to do away with my water bottle. Another way to extort money under the guise of security. But all these thoughts suddenly gave way to great anxiousness instead. I was going to enter a cricket stadium for the first time in my life. What a feeling it was! I literally ran through the maze of high walls and entered the lobby which led to the stand. It was like a hall with a huge entrance at the other. It was here that the refreshmets were served during the breaks.
I didnt even bother to look around. My target was the entrance to the stand. I slowed down enough to allow the security to check my ticket again. Finally i entered the stadium. What a view it was! Lush outfield with a huge expanse. The circular canopy of the stadium supported by great arches looked beautiful. And the four light towers stood stoically as though they had been there since eternity. The thing that struck me instead was the size of the stadium. On tv it looked much bigger. I was awestruck for the initial 10 minutes. then as the feeling sunk in, I thought of calling my brother. As it turned out, that sloth was still in bed maybe dreaming of driving an F1 car alogside Michel Schumacher!
The weather of bangalore as always was perfect. the sun was out but perhaps it was unusually cool. The far side of the stadium was still under the morning shadows. I was still trying to find out the place to sit so that i could get to see the game perfectly. The stand itself was pretty snugly placed. It was directly opposite the players pavilion on the far side. So it meant you couldnt see who was coming in to bat next. But you shouldnt expect all this luxury in the cheapest seat in the house. It wasnt all that bad too. Besides being very close to the playing field, it also was a nice place to watch straight drives from.
Slowly, but surely the crowd was building up. And along with it was the noise. Soon a giant tricolor was unfurled in the stand above me. The horns suddenly stopped for a brief moment, the cheering went quiet and as everyone waited to see what happened, the two teams came out onto the field although in shorts and sweats. It was the morning practise before the match started. But that was enough for the people to start cheering wildly.
As the players went about their drills, people cheered for the player they recognised sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. There were shouts of "Saaachinnnnn... Saaaachinnnn", which has become an anthem of sorts in the last decade. And interspersed were shouts and cheers for Sourav "Dada" Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag, Dhoni, Ishat, Zaheer and of course Kumble. The Australians were playing a game of football whereas the Indians kept themselves busy with a game of rugby. So whenever the ball went close to any of the stands the people cheered wildly forgetting that the game hadnt even started!
Click here for previous post
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Going to the stadium wasnt easy for me to say the least. I had been to the area around the Stadium a few times. But this time i had to be there early morning and that too using some mode of transport as it was pretty far away. My options were limited considering that i didnt have my own vehicle for transportation. That meant i either use an auto or a BMTC bus. Autos may be a convenient options elsewhere, but in bangalore you better be a millionaire to even consider traveling by it. Cos even if you are not, the autowallas assume you are some blue blooded fool ready to part with his money. The rates they quote shall either make your wallet lighter or force you to take the eco-friendly public transport. Hail the autowalla who cares for the environment!
So BMTC was the option for me. My source of truth was http://maps.google.com and http://bmtcinfo.com/ and http://btis.in/bus.htm . Excellent sites if you really want to go around in bangalore. route 138 it was for me then. I left at 7:30 am in the morning hoping to beat the rush. Luckily i got a bus as soon as i arrived at the bus stop and before i knew i had landed near the Chinnaswamy stadium.
The usually deserted road was transformed into a colourful melee of people, policemen, hawkers and blackmarketeers. With the match scheduled to start at 9:30 am, already i could see i was not the early bird at 7:45. large number of people were standing quietly in line waiting for the gates to open. I had got the tickets for the stand B (not to mention the cheapest ones). I had checked out the ground map earlier and had arrived at the conclusion that this was a good bet. and as i found out later, i wasnt wrong!
On figuring out that it was gate no 12 for me, i went upto the gate and started looking where the line ended. Strangely, there was no line at the gate! I wondered whether this really was the correct gate as the adjacent gate had a 100 meter queue already. My doubts were quelled when the guy at the ticket window confirmed that this indeed was the entrace to the stand A. I couldnt believe it. I was the first person to turn up in that particular stand. Not surprisingly though. I had arrived at the ground a 1:45 mins early.
As i stood there patiently thinking about how lucky i was to be the first one to enter the stand, i saw police men frisking away people anxious to get a ticket. The ticket window clearly displayed signes reading tickets were sold out. What an opporutnity for the black marketeers, i thought. I had experienced it myself the previous year during the last day of the test match between India and Pakistan. tickets were being sold at obnoxious prices a few meters away while the ticket windows shamelessly/helplessly/ignorantly displayed "sold out". What a shame. Paying a bribe to watch a sport thats considered a religion by us. In other words some black marketeer decides whether you can follow your religion or not. Utterly blasphemous.
Finally the gates opened and i was let in. There was thorough frisking of me,my bag and the result of which i had to do away with my water bottle. Another way to extort money under the guise of security. But all these thoughts suddenly gave way to great anxiousness instead. I was going to enter a cricket stadium for the first time in my life. What a feeling it was! I literally ran through the maze of high walls and entered the lobby which led to the stand. It was like a hall with a huge entrance at the other. It was here that the refreshmets were served during the breaks.
I didnt even bother to look around. My target was the entrance to the stand. I slowed down enough to allow the security to check my ticket again. Finally i entered the stadium. What a view it was! Lush outfield with a huge expanse. The circular canopy of the stadium supported by great arches looked beautiful. And the four light towers stood stoically as though they had been there since eternity. The thing that struck me instead was the size of the stadium. On tv it looked much bigger. I was awestruck for the initial 10 minutes. then as the feeling sunk in, I thought of calling my brother. As it turned out, that sloth was still in bed maybe dreaming of driving an F1 car alogside Michel Schumacher!
The weather of bangalore as always was perfect. the sun was out but perhaps it was unusually cool. The far side of the stadium was still under the morning shadows. I was still trying to find out the place to sit so that i could get to see the game perfectly. The stand itself was pretty snugly placed. It was directly opposite the players pavilion on the far side. So it meant you couldnt see who was coming in to bat next. But you shouldnt expect all this luxury in the cheapest seat in the house. It wasnt all that bad too. Besides being very close to the playing field, it also was a nice place to watch straight drives from.
Slowly, but surely the crowd was building up. And along with it was the noise. Soon a giant tricolor was unfurled in the stand above me. The horns suddenly stopped for a brief moment, the cheering went quiet and as everyone waited to see what happened, the two teams came out onto the field although in shorts and sweats. It was the morning practise before the match started. But that was enough for the people to start cheering wildly.
As the players went about their drills, people cheered for the player they recognised sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. There were shouts of "Saaachinnnnn... Saaaachinnnn", which has become an anthem of sorts in the last decade. And interspersed were shouts and cheers for Sourav "Dada" Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag, Dhoni, Ishat, Zaheer and of course Kumble. The Australians were playing a game of football whereas the Indians kept themselves busy with a game of rugby. So whenever the ball went close to any of the stands the people cheered wildly forgetting that the game hadnt even started!
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Friday, November 21, 2008
Day at Chinnaswamy Stadium bangalore - Australia vs India
How do you describe the first time you went and watched a match in a stadium? Unforgettable. Right? Its a childhood memory that any kid savors his entire life. Watching ones sporting heroes in flesh and blood compares to nothing else on this planet. Well i recently had the same experience. not as a kid, though. It happened to be almost 16 years after i fell in love with the game we call Cricket.
It wasn't that i never was interested in watching a live match. To be frank, i lived in the center of Mumbai; which in itself was reason good enough to watch atleast one match in the 16 years that I lived in Mumbai. But then somehow I never really came to watch a match in a stadium.Like a pilgrimage every pious Muslim takes to Mecca, it dawned upon me to do something similar.
The earliest instance i remember watching a cricket match on TV is the '91 Hero Cup. It was here that i saw the geniuses of Sachin Tendulkar & Anil Kumble at work. Frankly speaking, a 9 year old doesnt know a genius when he sees one. But After seeing all that these two have done for India over the last decade and a half, I was befitting to see these two characters of cricket in action with my very own eyes before they bid adieu to the 22 yards.
Its wasnt all about Sachin and Kumble, there was the ever hard-working father of Indian cricket Rahul Dravid. The "God of off-side", Sourav Ganguly and last but not the least, the silken willow of Vangipurappuvenkatasai Lakshman. The "Fab-Five" as these accomplished exponents of the game are known.
The opportunity chose me instead of the other way round. and nothing better i would say. After all, what better than a fitting challenge in the form of the Australians, the side to beat in cricketing circles. One last challenge. one last chance to leave an impression. One last chance to preserve a moment in history.
Having suffered enough at the hands of my procrastination, I set out to book my ticket before i let go of this chance. More in the next post...
Click here for next post
It wasn't that i never was interested in watching a live match. To be frank, i lived in the center of Mumbai; which in itself was reason good enough to watch atleast one match in the 16 years that I lived in Mumbai. But then somehow I never really came to watch a match in a stadium.Like a pilgrimage every pious Muslim takes to Mecca, it dawned upon me to do something similar.
The earliest instance i remember watching a cricket match on TV is the '91 Hero Cup. It was here that i saw the geniuses of Sachin Tendulkar & Anil Kumble at work. Frankly speaking, a 9 year old doesnt know a genius when he sees one. But After seeing all that these two have done for India over the last decade and a half, I was befitting to see these two characters of cricket in action with my very own eyes before they bid adieu to the 22 yards.
Its wasnt all about Sachin and Kumble, there was the ever hard-working father of Indian cricket Rahul Dravid. The "God of off-side", Sourav Ganguly and last but not the least, the silken willow of Vangipurappuvenkatasai Lakshman. The "Fab-Five" as these accomplished exponents of the game are known.
The opportunity chose me instead of the other way round. and nothing better i would say. After all, what better than a fitting challenge in the form of the Australians, the side to beat in cricketing circles. One last challenge. one last chance to leave an impression. One last chance to preserve a moment in history.
Having suffered enough at the hands of my procrastination, I set out to book my ticket before i let go of this chance. More in the next post...
Click here for next post
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