My first experience at the Cricket Stadium

It was 5.45 PM; we started from Old Airport Road. I am going to have first time experience watching a cricket match in a stadium. A usually 20 minute’s drive took us almost 2 hours today to reach. Bangalore was packed with people and vehicles on the road and there were route diversions due to a fire accident at Trinity Circle. Finally we reached Gate 9. It was 7.40 PM. We already missed the toss, so we decided to walk the distance to Gate 6. Finally we were at the gate. I got my face painted and picked up a CSK T Shirt. We were all excited. Sat in a good place in ‘D’ Corporate stand; but few of our friends were upset about our positioning as we were not able to see the cheer leaders from our seat. They compromised by standing up every time cheer leaders got onto the stage.

Wow! It was a great experience to be part of such a huge cricket fraternity. We could see ‘yellows’ only in patches – as expected. RCB playing in home ground so obviously ‘Red’ was dominating. I was one odd woman out in my group, supporting the CSK. The focus lights, the drum beat, the sound, the colorful stadium, the people, the cheering voices, the flags, the streamers, the displays – everything was awesome. I imagined for a minute, what if this had been India-Pakistan match! The entire crowd would have stood united to cheer. I would love to be part of such a cheering crowd in the near future.
The ‘nasha’ of being there made me enjoy the first innings thoroughly. Let me admit that I was very disappointed in the last 4 four overs – CSK giving 62 runs to RCB. Yeah!, every time there was a misfield or a catch miss – I screamed “We Miss Dhoni”. I definitely missed his leadership, which would have changed the game result. However, I was hopeful that CSK would be able to chase it until Hayden was made run-out. However I enjoyed cricket to the fullest.

In the last few overs of second innings when it was almost sure that CSK was losing, my critical brain started working. I suddenly realized, how unsafe it was inside the stadium. They were bursting crackers on the terrace, above our head. The easiest way to create an accident!!! Then the focus lights – now I understand why we have power cuts in Bangalore. IPL talks about ‘Go Green’ everyday on TV. But there is nothing green about it. I think the one best way to save energy is by having all the matches in day light. And then the traffic chaos that the IPL followers and match viewers created this evening. I think that is the worst. All our vehicles would have emitted tones and tones of gases polluting the environment. We disturbed the public and the environment. And last but not the least, the cleanliness within and outside the stadium. It was completely overlooked by the spectators. I will not blame only the viewers here. The stadium didn’t have any garbage disposal system implemented – where do we throw waste? So we all threw it under our seat (a typical Indian mind work).

All these are not something pertaining only to Chinnaswamy stadium. I am sure every stadium in India is the same. Though I enjoyed my evening, these things made me Think! – Should I really go to the stadium to watch a match?