SauravO1's Eden Diary (India - West Indies Test at Kolkata

Day One

1) The tickets available at the counter are priced at Rs.100, 200 and 300

2) When I walked in at 9:25 (overlooking the fact that the match will start at 9.00 since it's Kolkata - though, according to the tickets the match should start at 9:30), there were about 3000 people in the stadium. It gradually grew to perhaps 20000 later. Seeing an almost empty Eden is quite a sight.

3) Spontaneous celebrations broke out when Gambhir got out (predictably). Gambhir didn't like that possibly :-)

4) After Edwards had a face-off with Sachin, the crowd gave Edwards quite a mouthful when he was fielding at deep square leg.

5) The crowd favourite of Kolkata is Bishoo, simply because Bishoo is one of the most popular Bengali pet names (short form of 'Vishwanath' or Vishwajeet'). Every 3rd household has someone named 'Bishoo'. The crowd kept screaming 'Aiii Bishooo' whenever Bishoo would be fielding near the boundary, creating hilarious scenes. Bishoo must be wondering what has he done to be heckled so much. I guess the crowd was missing 'Rampaul' too - since both the names of Bishoo and Ram Pal sound like two Bengali cricketers.

6) The crowd gave Dravid a standing ovation when it was flashed that Dravid has scored 951 runs to become this years' highest scorer till now.

7) After tea, when the game was going along in a sleepy manner, one desperate gentleman screamed 'Orey Maar Reeeeeeeee'. The voice reverberated all around the stadium, and such was the desperation, that the crowd spontaneously clapped for the man for a minute.

8) Dark clouds hovered around the stadium 45 minutes after tea, but disappeared soon in thin air after they (possibly) saw Laxman nearing his half-century and Dravid nearing his century.

9) Whenever Virat Kohli was seen in the stadium, the crowd went crazy after him. (Found that very surprising)

10) After the game was over, Dhoni came out to practise some baseball-style hits.

11) After the game, a six-old child started crying saying she wants Sachin's autograph. Her mother found it impossible to explain to her that it is not possible to get Sachin's autograph like that. The kid almost refused to leave the stadium without Sachin's autograph, and the mother got all the more helpless.

Day Two

Day Two of the ongoing India-WI Test (Nov 14-18, 2011) started on a rather gloomy note because of the weather. Here are the highlights:

a) Morning shows the Day - An unusually gloomy morning in Kolkata was a bad sign for the day to come. The sun was seen for the first time only for a few seconds at about 9 am when I was entering the stadium. Otherwise, it looked like doomsday, as if there would be no tomorrow. 2012 is coming folks!

b) 1% percent attendance - When I walked in, there seemed to be some 500 people. But there's something about the acoustics of Eden or the noise-making capacity of Kolkatans, even these 500 were creating quite some noise to keep the atmosphere chirpy and lively. Among musical instruments, shankh/conch seems to be the favourite, and what an impact the shankh creates - it can beat a vuvuzela by miles in any contest. Maybe we can teach the South Africans how to use a shankh.

c) Yuvi's lbw - The irritating thing about giant screens in a stadium is that they never show a seemingly controversial decision. The replay of the leg-before of Yuvi was never shown to the spectators, and for that matter replays of no leg-before or close run-out calls are shown on the giant screen.

d) Virat Kohli cheerleading squad - For some reason, Virat Kohli keeps coming on to the field for no reason whatsoever, and his zillions of teenage fans create a huge ruckus with their super-shrill voices. I would dare to say that Virat seemed more popular than any other Indian cricketer (including Goddy).

e) Fidel Edwards vs Kemar Roach - Edwards looks really exciting with his run-up and action, whereas Kemar Roach (when he runs in) doesn't look more than military medium. Edwards also seems to extract more pace and bounce, whereas Roach seems to be a pale shadow of the form he was in last year during the World Cup (I saw him in Kotla against Holland)

f) Player spotting - When bored, the crowd's favourite pastime is to spot West Indian players - "Oi je Chandra Paul ... Oi je Bishoo'. Apart from Chanders, Fidel Edwards, Roach and Bishoo, the crowd has no clue as to who's who; though Barath can still be distinguished because of his height and fielding position.

g) Bad Light Part I - At about ten thirty, it is unbelievably dark. It seems that when light was offered to the batsmen yesterday, it was brighter. Today, the electronic hoardings seemed brighter than the light on the ground. The lightmeter reading must have been between 3 and 4 and I was wondering how they continued to play for a few overs. After they walked off, there was bit of moisture hanging in the ground, and there seemed to be a thin layer of haze as well, so much so that the other end of the stadium was not clearly visible.

h) Laxman and helmets - I noticed that Laxman never takes off his helmet while playing. Even when Dravid and Dhoni were playing against the spinners without a helmet or a cap, Laxman would stick on to his heavy helmet. Anyone knows why?

i) Shot of the day - For the audience, Dhoni's paddle-sweep at 97 to score two runs was undoubtedly the shot of the day. Got him more cheer than any other shot. Dhoni's six off Kemar Roach (just before he got out) was scarily flying exactly towards me, and fell a few feet away from me.

j) Dada, dada - At the club house, (located exactly beside my block), suddenly a loud cheer was heard. One glance revealed the reason - flanked by two men on both sides, the Prince of Kolkata has appeared from nowhere. The score was around 625, but for one entire over no one was watching the match, with the crowd (of about 10,000 now) trying its best to attract their Dada's attention. Someone chirped - "Since he is here now, he'll make sure than that the declaration happens before Laxman gets to his double (like it happened in Pakistan with Sachin's 194*)." Funnily enough, Dhoni declared after a couple overs.

k) Post-match games - After the match was halted for bad light, the entire Indian team (excepting Laxman and Goddy) came down to the field to play their own games. Rahul Dravid went jogging around the field (for at least three laps) attracting comments about his dedication, fitness, sincerity and all that he's well known for. Sehwag and Gambhir practised some throw-downs while the rest were busy playing football. Kohli played football like a Delhi boy, while Yuvraj can be called a pie-chucker in football as well. Ishant seemed passionate about the game (no wonder he remains injured all the time) and scolded Rahul Sharma bigtime for conceding a goal against Yuvi.

Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day, but I wonder how many will actually turn up to watch the game.

Day Three

Day 3 started on a bright note. The dark clouds have been banished forever and Kolkata was shining in the glory of the morning sun. These are the snippets:

a) The crowd missed Ashwin's wife - Unlike yesterday, Ashwin's wife's close-ups weren't flashed on the giant screen. Some spectators seemed really bothered with that, asking each other ('Osshiner bouta kothay? (Where's Ashwin's wife?) Aajke mathe asheni? (Hasn't she come to the field today?). Despite all this, everyone unanimously agreed that Ashwin has chosen the right girl for his marriage.

b) Is it all over today? - After WI got bundled out for 153, people argued that WI will lose the match today itself their logic being - "If they have lost eight wickets in two and half hours, they'll surely lose the other ten in the next five hours". At the end of the day, the argument turned to whether Chandrapaul can score a double century and save the match for WI.

c) Drinks van - A flaming red Maruti Omni serves as the Drinks Van. I hope they get a Ferrari someday for this purpose. What about Sachin's Ferrari? :-p

d) Bowling speeds - One disadvantage of being on the ground is that the giant screen hardly ever shows the bowling speeds of the bowlers. So unless you are tracking a cricinfo commentary or something similar through your mobile, there is no way to find out the speed of the Umesh Yadav delivery that went by the batsman like a rocket.

e) Words of wisdom - An elderly uncle sitting beside me was sharing his expert opinions and more often than not knew what Dhoni is going to do next. He's been watching the game for 25 years now from the ground. He told me that he once wrote a letter to MCC stating - 'If a bowler has to stop bowling after 10 overs in a one-day match, then a batsman should also not be allowed to bat after batting for 20 overs in the same match. Why can the batsman keep performing throughout when the bowler cannot?' MCC apparently accepted acknowledgement of the letter but did not respond. He also said how pitches used to be kept open in the Rest Day of Tests previously, and why Sunny Gavaskar's 4th innings performances are infinitely superior to Sachin's or Laxman's (for the same reason).

f) Mexican err... wave? - The poor crowd tried out the Mexican wave a few times but soon learnt that you cannot do a Mexican wave in an empty stadium.

g) Hats VS caps - Three guys (Sachin, Laxman and Sehwag) in the Indian team wear hats while fielding while the rest wear caps. Superstition?

h) Spot the celebrity - In the afternoon, people from my block started pointing at the upper tier of Block B talking about someone. As everyone looked that way trying to spot the celebrity and got confused, he was eventually spotted - a bare-bodied man waving a huge Indian flag madly. Well, he's supposedly Sachin's biggest fan and has become quite a mini-celebrity himself.

i) Coffee, anyone - A mini cup of bland coffee (less than 100 ml) costs 20 bucks at the Eden. And the so-called Food Court had no dustbins around. There was one on Day One but it disappeared from Day Two.

j) Bowling change of the day - The whole crowd unanimously cheered and agreed when Sehwag got the ball. The enthusiasm dampened very soon by Chanders' six.

k) Ballboy par excellence - There is a physically challenged man who hangs around with the Indian team while practice. His legs are paralysed and he walks on all fours. During the throwdowns on the field (at lunchtime, tea or post-match), he fields along with all the other fielders and dives at the deliveries coming towards him. If the ball runs away, he chases the ball on all fours with remarkable agility. Apparently, Sachin sponsors all his travel, food and match-watching arrangements all throughout India. Anyone knows anything about him?

Tomorrow, in all probability would be the final day of the match. When you watch a match for three days, you realize that a Test match is nothing without its crowd. Their opinions colour your opinion in strange ways, not in terms of correctness but in terms of being the predominant thought of the moment. Very much the way a commentator's opinion on TV or radio can colour your opinion. In a cricket ground, the crowd is actually the commentator and the Indian cricket board has to ensure in some way that we don't lose the crowd in our stadiums again.

P.S - Nargis Fakhri is damn hot

Day Four/Final Day

It's all over. For the few of us who turned up regularly at the Eden Gardens from morning to afternoon, the last four days seemed like another Durga Puja. With the same melancholy aftertaste. But every year, during the last day of the Durga Puja when the idols are immersed, we say "Aaschhe bochhor aabar hobe" (It will again happen next year); only, in this case there is no guarantee that it will happen again next year.

Not much happened on the final half-day, except some exemplary batting by Darren Bravo. Some moments in the stadium that stood out for me:

a) Varun Aaron or Arun Varon - Some not-so-informed people in the crowd were confused whether the pace bowler practising on the ground during lunch is called Varun Aaron or Arun Varon. They eventually decided on Arun Varon after some confusion.

b) 'Humko Kaka Kyon Bola' - A part of the crowd was getting unruly, so an elderly cop asked them to shut up. As they argued with the cop, one of them called him 'Kaka'. The cop blew his fuse completely, screaming: 'Kya bola, humko kya bola, humko kaka kyon bola'? "Tumhare baap ka bhai hum kahen hoga etc etc". The rest of the spectators, already in splits, pacified the cop gradually.

c) Fielding effort of the day - Initially it seemed that Umesh Yadav's one-handed dive to stop a boundary would be the favourite crowd moment of the day, but later, Rahul Dravid's slide near the ropes to get to a ball got the most thunderous applause. And the usual chat about his commitment and dedication and sincerity started again.

d) The magic bat - Only the Eden crowd knew how Marlon Samuels got a terrific half-century after his recent lean patch. The story goes like this - "When Saurav Ganguly showed up at the Eden on Day 2, Marlon Samuels went to meet him (the photograph of the two of them were widely published in the Bengali papers). Then Samuels told him how the bat he is presently using is an exact prototype of one of Ganguly's own bats, a bat that Ganguly had gifted to Chris Gayle while they were in KKR. Samuels then took the bat from Gayle and made a prototype of it." Therefore Samuels' effort made the spectators quite happy - Dada nahi, toh uska bat hi sahi. Some of them also commented - Anyone who plays at Eden with Dada's bat will get runs.

e) Basanti kahan hai? - Sehwag was trying to focus on the game standing near the boundary ropes ignoring the 'Sehwag Sehwag' chants. The audience, desperate to attract his attention finally tried out an old trick - "Viru, Basanti kahan hai"? Finally, Sehwag looked back for an instant and gave a blank/Sehwagish smile.

f) No 'monkey' talk - Like every other day, the spectators were warned by voice announcements and also by a notice on the sight screen that no one should engage in racial abuse. Racial abuses can hardly happen in an almost empty stadium. Incidentally, today had the least turnout among all these days.

g) Uncle talk - A group of four 70+ gentlemen were sitting behind me. One of them shyly asked me - 'Beta, ek baat poochhoon'? In logon mein Dhoni kaun hai? Jaante toh sabko hai lekin pehchaan nahi paa rahen hai" - I pointed out at the guy in the middle of the ground wearing gloves in his hand, but they could not connect instantly. After a few false attempts, they finally understood - "Achcha woh hai, woh jo baar baar aage badh rahaan hai"? They also wanted to know which one is Sachin and whether Sehwag is playing. Luckily for me and them, Laxman, Sehwag and Sachin were standing in a straight line across the field. So I asked them to look at the guys wearing white hats, and explained - the tall one is Laxman, the medium one is Sehwag and the short one is Sachin. "Arey Sachin toh bahut naata hai, sabse naata" they remarked and laughed in unison. It was quite unbelievable for them.

They told me later that they have come from Bihar for the Gangasagar Mela, heard that there is a match going on and has straight come to the stadium. Good for them and Eden :-)
Nice to have some untouched souls among a bunch of all-knowers.

h) Why the audience roars - Apart from the usual wickets and runs, the crowd in Eden generally roared on two occasions - whenever the television cameras were pointed at them and whenever Sachin Tendulkar was in the vicinity. It roared one last time finally when Laxman wholeheartedly praised the Eden audience during his MOM acceptance speech. After that it was all over and a strange silence descended. And the silence lingered on.

And thus ends the titbits of the day. My cricket watching record in terms of India's victories remain impeccable - In the last four years, I have watched three Tests from the ground and India has won all of them (2008 - Nagpur Test against Australia (India rose to No.2 rankings after winning this), 2010 - Eden Test against South Africa (the awesome victory with ten balls to spare), and this Test). All the three Tests have a remarkable similarity - the No.6 of India either played their last Test or were dropped after the Test. Nagpur was Ganguly's last Test, in 2010 Badrinath was dropped never to return, and this year it may well be Yuvraj's last Test.

Posted in: SauravO1's Eden Diary