Saturday, December 08, 2007

Dada's Century @ Eden Gardens

I wanted to experience one of the "Son of Soil" moments of an Indian Cricketer after reading K L Mohanavarma's Cricket long time back.That novel would have been written when Psycho Sreesanth was in his trousers and was learning to bowl in one of those vast green fields in Muvattupuzha .

I have watched Sachin taking 5 wickets for the first time in his career on an April Fools day and India chasing 300+ successfully aided by Jadeja's century.There were a lot of moments like this which I have enjoyed while watching cricket in stadiums all across India and I love watching cricket in a stadium sharing the excitement of the crowd rather than in a cosy sofa in living room.

Whatever I have seen pale in comparison to the excitement on seeing Sourav Ganguly's maiden test century at Eden Gardens .It was fun to see a lush green Eden Gardens which seemed so different from that pale green patch seen on the TV screen and we were at Eden Gardens only for three hours .It was exciting to be a part of the crowd who were chanting Dada , dada all along . When Sourav Ganguly pushed Danish Kaneria just wide of mid-off and ran a single, hands aloft in the air, as a part of the 50,000-strong crowd at Eden Gardens we had finally witnessed something more than a decade in the making. It was amusing to watch the crowd which had cheering so lustily every time Ganguly's face flashed on the giant screen and erupted when he jumped up in the air after scoring his century.

It was hot and we had to stand in a serpentine queue to get in and had to walk three kilometers to the stadium and we were in stadium only for four hours. But who cares! We saw Dada's century at his home ground and that is what matters.

5 comments:

Arjun said...

and now at blore, his magic continues and a double century is born!

nice blog.

Anonymous said...

See I was a really huge Dada fan. Unlike Sachin, Saurav has not lost his flamboyance. He still plays that airy shot over extra-cover

Dhanush | ധനുഷ് said...

Cricket is really one hell of a novel. I always felt Mohanavarma was an under rated novelist of Malayalam Literature. Read his Ohari? Amazing it is.

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

Arjun : Thanks :)

Anon: True and Sourav is like old wine which keeps getting better.

Dhanun :Yupz , Ohari used to be published in in Mathrubhumi Azchapathippu in 90's. It was a hell of a novel too . Along with Mohanavarma I thought K L radhakrishnan was another under rated novelist .

Anonymous said...

Came here, while searching for ohari.... It was being published in Mathrubhumi during a time I was too kid enough to understand the intricacies of shares or markets. Still, I remember reading it from start to end each week. :-)

No matter what, KL Mohana Varma is a perfectionist. Any of his works, whether it is story or novel, is full of details that we can't think he hasn't done that :-) Thank you for remembering him, let me continue my search :-)

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