Today's cricket match
Today was my first "proper" cricket match that I've been to. Unfortunately as you will probably know, England lost - although it was quite a close run thing. The day was a real experience though, and I'm pretty tired after it all.
I got up around 6 am so I could get some breakfast before the driver picked me up at 7:00. Lucky I did as I didn't manage to get anything to eat at the stadium. The trip over in the morning was pretty painless - we started off before rush hour and got over there within about 30 mins. The driver parked in the main parking lot (ie a dusty field) and then walked over with me to the stadium.
The ticket said that you weren't allowed "Hand bags", Radio transistors, bottles, knives or other weapons...so I thought - great, I can take binoculars and a camera...I was wrong. I got into the main enclosure, then they wouldn't let me into the seating area in the grandstand with ANYTHING. Fortunately I bumped into two English guys who were in the same predicament who called their driver and we left everything of value with him. They wouldn't even let you take bottles of water purchased there in, or sun tan lotion - hence me being rather red now.
Eventually we got in and picked our seats - they were pretty good actually. about 20 degrees around from being square on the wicket and the sight screens. Slightly raised so we could see over the press and the metal grid fence, and despite being the kind of plastic seats you got in your primary school assembly hall, not too uncomfortable.
The amount of police and security was incredible...it seems to be a wheeze for all of the local dignatories and officials to get themselves tickets to the cricket, or get assigned to police the crowd. There must have been 70 police officers in our small section alone at one point. To start with there were not that many, but gradually as India batted to catch up and win, the numbers multiplied.
It was interesting observing the crowd throughout the day. The Indians were quite a good crowd, but there was deathly silence whenever an Indian batsman was out. They did applaud when our batsmen had done particularly well, or when they'd fielded the ball well, but the line was drawn when one of their countrymen was out. I think the only exception was one particularly brilliant wicket where the stumps had been knocked by Geraint Jones from a distance but the batsman was in, and then Collingwood sprinted in from nowhere when the batters decided to go for a cheeky run, scooped up the ball and rugby tackled the stumps out of the ground with the ball. The decision went to the TV umpire and went England's way. Even some of the more fervent India supporters had to applaud the acrobatics involved in the dismissal of their player.
There were banners around the top of the stadium - obviously made out of fairly flimsy canvas or plastic, and by the end of the match they had been broken through by India supporters who had obviously scaled the walls and were trying to see through to the pitch. No-one really seemed to mind, and by the end of the England innings, even the officious security guards were letting people in with bags, water, food, and so on.
All in all it was a great experience and it's certainly not one that your average holiday would encompass.
K
I got up around 6 am so I could get some breakfast before the driver picked me up at 7:00. Lucky I did as I didn't manage to get anything to eat at the stadium. The trip over in the morning was pretty painless - we started off before rush hour and got over there within about 30 mins. The driver parked in the main parking lot (ie a dusty field) and then walked over with me to the stadium.
The ticket said that you weren't allowed "Hand bags", Radio transistors, bottles, knives or other weapons...so I thought - great, I can take binoculars and a camera...I was wrong. I got into the main enclosure, then they wouldn't let me into the seating area in the grandstand with ANYTHING. Fortunately I bumped into two English guys who were in the same predicament who called their driver and we left everything of value with him. They wouldn't even let you take bottles of water purchased there in, or sun tan lotion - hence me being rather red now.
Eventually we got in and picked our seats - they were pretty good actually. about 20 degrees around from being square on the wicket and the sight screens. Slightly raised so we could see over the press and the metal grid fence, and despite being the kind of plastic seats you got in your primary school assembly hall, not too uncomfortable.
The amount of police and security was incredible...it seems to be a wheeze for all of the local dignatories and officials to get themselves tickets to the cricket, or get assigned to police the crowd. There must have been 70 police officers in our small section alone at one point. To start with there were not that many, but gradually as India batted to catch up and win, the numbers multiplied.
It was interesting observing the crowd throughout the day. The Indians were quite a good crowd, but there was deathly silence whenever an Indian batsman was out. They did applaud when our batsmen had done particularly well, or when they'd fielded the ball well, but the line was drawn when one of their countrymen was out. I think the only exception was one particularly brilliant wicket where the stumps had been knocked by Geraint Jones from a distance but the batsman was in, and then Collingwood sprinted in from nowhere when the batters decided to go for a cheeky run, scooped up the ball and rugby tackled the stumps out of the ground with the ball. The decision went to the TV umpire and went England's way. Even some of the more fervent India supporters had to applaud the acrobatics involved in the dismissal of their player.
There were banners around the top of the stadium - obviously made out of fairly flimsy canvas or plastic, and by the end of the match they had been broken through by India supporters who had obviously scaled the walls and were trying to see through to the pitch. No-one really seemed to mind, and by the end of the England innings, even the officious security guards were letting people in with bags, water, food, and so on.
All in all it was a great experience and it's certainly not one that your average holiday would encompass.
K
posted by Ken at 5:16 pm
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