Ms Dhoni
sachin tendulkar
indian cricket
CHENNAI: Chennai came alive yesterday when hordes of students, parents, and cricket lovers thronged the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, to watch the India VS West Indies match. One young Indian cricket fan, 10-year-old Dibeeshwar, bared his chest to get the Indian tri-colour painted. “My father asked me to do it and I’m happy for it. This is the first match I’m watching in a stadium. I’m very excited,” he said. A couple from West Bengal, who had come for medical reasons to Chennai, roamed around the stadium to just soak in the festive feel. Husband Debobroto Sengupta said, “We came to Chennai for three days only. But since we both are cricket lovers, we decided to visit the stadium and check the atmosphere around.” The couple was indeed passionate about cricket, as they sported India tri-colours on their cheeks and roamed around the stadium together. The stadium had fans not just from other states, but overseas too. A group of 10 Gujarati NRIs from the UK came to India just to watch the World Cup. Other than the Guju-factors, they all had another thing in common — they were dressed in interesting gears — a tri-colour turban and a tri-colour coat draped on their bodies. One of them even had Yuvraj Singh written all over his chest. “India! India!” they shouted and rooted for an India-win. Jay Patel, a chartered accountant working in London and a member of the group, said, “We came in these gears to show our love for cricket and for India. We always go to the country where the World Cup is played every time and it has been a practice for us for the last five World Cups.” Also seen at the stadium were Bollywood beauties Aditi Govitrikar and Sushma Reddy promoting a new product. But it was also a day of disappointments and shattered dreams for many hoping to buy tickets. Sita Ram and Rajendra Kumar came to Chennai on Saturday from Bilaspur in Lucknow, with a hope of getting a ticket for the match. “We missed Holi to be a part of a cricket match. We have to return empty-handed now,” said Sita Ram. “We missed a very important festival because Holi comes every year, but World Cup happens once in four years. Being a part of this is an achievement for us.”Inspector N Giri manning Gate no 13 at the stadium confirmed that the match is sold out. “We made the announcement on March 19 (Saturday) that tickets were sold out. Now, we’re helpless and had to shoo away cricket lovers seeking tickets to the match.”
