A day in a stadium

Okay so by general consensus, a few things can be concluded, Guys and Girls both don't like Test match, Many guys and a meager no.of girls like One day cricket match, and all guys and a few more no. of girls like T-20 match. Basically i am like any other normal guy who would at many occasions find a Test match very boring( although it can be nail biting sometimes). So when one of my best friend and a passionate and avid cricket watcher offered a pass to me for the test match between India and Srilanka at the brabourne stadium in Mumbai i refused to go on the first day, reason being it was srilanka's batting and primary reason being stadium is far away from my home, but i could not refuse on the second day, primarily because he is the best convincer i have ever met and secondarily because it was India's batting.




                  I reached the stadium a little late but just in time to see our Viru paaji making a century, the crowd went into hysteria and chants of viru viru went louder and louder. Jay took me to the North stand and then i recollected, oh my god this is the costliest stand and apparently the most notorious stand. This was the very same stand from which three people were arrested in 2007 for mocking andrew symonds with monkey faces. I frowned thinking of the menace i had got myself into. I looked around my self and so few good looking girls sitting, that came as a relief as i was prepared for a boring day ahead.

              Viru paaji had just hit a huge six of muralidharan and i stood up to cheer but to my surprise the whole crowd was chanting "Aussie suxx" again and again. I asked my friend why and what is happening, he pointed his finger to the commentary box right on top of us and there he was, bradd hogg the former australian cricketer who is here as a commentator. He at first tried to ignore the comments but he went in and came out and i saw something which gave a very fitting reply to the crowd, a middle finger in his right hand was raised towards the crowd. Although this only raised the chants from the crowd. In the meanwhile dravid was on the strikers end and was playing in his trademark "wall" style.

             It was tea time and i was definitely feeling very hungry, i asked my friend to buy something, but all the food stalls were overflowing with people( Test match at mumbai still draws crowds!!!!), to my relief a food vendor came up with domino's pizza. I heaved a sigh of relief.....

         "Bhaiya, give me two pizza's,small" i said taking out Rs 80
         " Saab it is 200" he said
         "What?????????!!!!!!!" i said in a voice loud enough for the chic sitting a block next to me to look at me.....
         "What else do you think sir, we have to pay license fee to the BCCI, besides we also have to pay the stadium authorities to allow us to work here and get things in"   the vendor said
         "But......."
         " Leave it yaar, we will buy one pizza and enjoy" jay interrupted as i started to say something
    

     So a pizza meant to feed one person ended up feeding two hungry souls. Since it was not enough, we bought samosa's and cold drinks and we did't argue when we paid Rs 15/ cold and bland samosa and never mind the half cup not so cold "cold drink" which was priced at Rs 20.

       The match resumed and even sehwag's sixers started looking monotonous to me and again the crowd surprised me... "Walk and talk talk and walk" the crowd started shouting with increasing tempo. I looked up and saw a TV production team official talking on his phone. And this time i couldn't stop myself from laughing and couldn't stop myself from joining in the crowd chants.I couldn't stop myself from dancing when sehwag hit a six. Slowly i was getting pulled in to what i considered a few hours back a taboo. I was all pumped up when crowd started with this yelling "Item" again and again. I looked at jay with a quizzing look, he pointed to a girl who was walking behind the boundary towards the cameraman. I could not blame the crowd for this behavior . The girl was wearing a designer outfit with cross cut at shoulder and knee length dress. The dress was black and was well complementing her body( read curves). The girl then looked up with a faint smile towards the stand and everyone started shouting again, but this time it was "Sorry". Although i was tempted to join in, but didn't join in the crowd chants. I didn't want to end up in police lock up(yes the aussie monkey haunted me).

       Finally dravid labored to his half century and with a heavy heart i asked jay to leave along with me. The experience of watching a match in stadium which would have been boring other wise on a TV was amazing. Everytime going to a stadium may be impractical but one such experience is must for cricket lovers.

  PS- 1) For BCCI and cricket authorities....."kyu paisa paisa karti hai, paise pe kyun marti hai"
         2) I tried watching the Test match on TV and i still find it boring......
         3) The north stand i was sitting in had the plushest of crowd with the roudiest of the behavior......