Watching Sachin Tendulkar score a hundred in front of 40,000 adoring fans takes away some of the pain of losing. There is time enough in the future to dwell on missed opportunities and Monty’s lackluster bowling effort. I was just a pleasure to watch a brilliant game.
The Chennai crowd was as much a part of the experience as anything that happened on the field. When India are batting, the most conservative old man is transformed into a fifteen-year-old. He shouts and cheers and dances for every run they score. When Tendulkar walks into bat the crowds flock. Even when he’s fielding, when he touches the ball a roar erupts like a wicket has fallen.
The highlight came last evening while Sehwag was hitting fours and sixes at will. After every boundary the two women sat behind me, both clad head to toe in black chadors and hijabs, starting jumping up and down on their seats and blowing horns in my ear. It was fantastic. The atmosphere at a cricket match in India is unique to anything I have ever experienced. Even as England are getting thrashed you can’t help looking around you and grinning like a mad-man.
Strauss’s twin hundreds, Swann’s double wicket opening over, Flintoff’s confrontation with Yuvraj, Sehwag’s blitz and a Tendulkar century to win the game! Its such a cliché, but cricket really is the winner. Onwards to Mohali, and we will see if England can pick up the pieces.
Alex Try is in India blogging England’s tour for The Corridor
Alex: As a Chennai born cricket fan, who hasn’t been home in sometime, I wanted to know if the crowd size on the first 4 days any different from the last day? The last test match i saw in Chennai, against Australia in ‘01, I remember sitting in packed stands on all the three days that I went. How was it this time?
I am guessing that if the games are potentially absorbing, the crowds will come and the lack of crowds in Test matches elsewhere is essentially a comment on the state of that particular matchup. Do you think that this is a valid statement?
The first two days the crowd was disappointing – maybe 5000-10000. I spoke to a few Indians i met about this and they said the test is right in the middle of school exams – so that stopped all the kids coming to the ground. and I guess the last minute decision to host the match here stopped people from further afield planning to come to Chennai for the test.
The weekend was a different story – maybe 25,000 or more on saturday – and it was almost full when india came out to bat on sunday evening. Like i said in the article – being in a packed crowd when Sehwag was batting was such a privilege.
As I am sure you know – the crowds can also be quite fickle – as soon as Sehwag got out (or maybe because Dravid walked in) – they all dissipated. They ebbed and flowed with India’s fortunes.
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