My First Time In Eden Gardens!

Many of my Indian friends will be quite well acquainted with the sport Cricket. Well you must be because it's like a religion in India. Though it's not the National sport of the country, people follow it like the the bible! Being a girl, I was never quite into sports (*I'm going to get few nasty and snide remarks from my feminist friends here*). But I always keep myself updated about what's going on in the world of athletics.

My Dad, who is a big fan of Cricket always used to tell me about the test matches he watched at the Eden Gardens Kolkata. A conversation about that always starts with "Oh what days we had when I was your age! I remember standing in the queue for hours to get tickets for the matches of India vs England. Sweating and panting in the sultry summer heat or being drenched by the heavy downpours during monsoon! Nothing could make us feel daunted! We could trade anything in this world just to see our Cricket legends play! The stadium of Eden Gardens was like a magnificent arena and the players were like Gladiators who were determined to fight the battle till death! A player had to be fortunate to play here but a spectator had to be even more destined to watch a match there!"

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So today, when I walked into the stadium for the first time in my life, I had goosebumps all over my skin! I felt my Dad's words ringing in my ears! "The Eden Gardens is like the Eden of all the cricket stadiums of the world!"  It is simply breathtaking. It's majestic green field, the vast galleries, the 90,000 cheering crowd made me feel overwhelmed! It is simply grand! According to the Wikipedia, 'Eden Garden Stadium Kolkata is the third biggest stadium trailing The Melbourne Cricket Ground and The ANZ Stadium in Australia. Eden Gardens is known for it's large and vociferous crowd. It is said that a cricketers cricketing education is not complete until he plays in front of the packed Eden Garden gallery.'

It was an unforgettable experience truly speaking. The grandiosity of the ambiance and sheer energy of the crowd made me fall into a trance like state!  I could hardly keep track of the bowling and batting status as every time a batsman would hit a ball, the crowd would break into a state of frenzy! But nevertheless I enjoyed every second of it. The sighs from the people in my neighbouring seats when ever a wicket fell or the roar of success every time a batsman from the home team hit four or six runs, kept me entertained throughout the match.

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So I am totally hooked to this game from today itself and will loyally try and follow it, not because I like watching it but just to be able to sit in a corner of this beautiful stadium again someday and break into those 'Hurrahs', and impromptu jigs with another 89,999 people cheering for the team I choose to support!


          Take care,
                     Sukanya!

P.S: I went for a T20 IPL (Indian Premier League) match and the team I supported, Kolkata Knight Riders won the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad! Yay!!

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