The Eden Gardens, one of India's most iconic cricket stadiums was always an aspirational venue. Ever since I have come to Kolkata last year, there were opportunities to visit the venue during the IPL or domestic first-class matches. IPL was a strict no-no, given the hot and humid weather in April-May, that too in a perennially humid Kolkata. How players survive in this weather is no mystery though given the big bucks involved.
The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 provided an excellent opportunity to watch at least one match at the venue. But some fraud deprived me of any ticket when the so-called official (ICC aka BCCI) portal opened in early September. None of the matches at the Eden Gardens weren't showing SOLD OUT within ten minutes of the opening of the ticket portal. What followed was a hue and cry, which became evident as the opening match of the World Cup was played in a virtually empty stadium. So the powers that they were forced to open the portal for tickets again.
My first choice was the India-South Africa game on November 5, but it was SOLD OUT! So I settled for the England-Pakistan clash on 11th November.
The atmosphere at the stadium was electric. Loud music a la the IPL tamasha kept blaring. DIL DIL PAKISTAN was played umpteen times. The crowd support for Pakistan was tremendous. However the knowledgeable audience at the stadium applauded every good shot, ball or fielding. Defending champions England prevailed in a thoroughly professional performance, surprisingly pretty late in the tournament. Pakistan, for me and the highly supportive crowd, let the cricket-lovers down, badly.
The facilities at the stadium were pretty good, with one janitor continuously wiping the toilet floor clean. The seats were a pain in the ass, literally, more so as they were exorbitantly priced at Rs 2000!
Cricket is a religion in India and the frenzy is at its peak. The final later today promises to be a humdinger. Fingers crossed. More to follow, soon...
