Mumbai was going crazy today. First of all it had been pouring all morning and had jeopardized my own program. I had to visit my school for the latest updates, but I was too afraid to venture on the wet streets and too afraid of a fall on a slippery road. But this rain did not deter the frenzy of the cricket fans who were bathing on the road under the heavy rains and waiting for the glimpse of the new cricketers who had made a history after 25 years by bringing home the world cup for India, and this comes just after people of India had begin to give up on this sport and were looking at empty barrels because of the poor performance of the endorsement-winning cricketers.
If you were in Mumbai today, you would wonder whether Mumbai is (really) always on the ‘move’. Today the Mumbai city had come to a ‘standstill’. People had shut their shops, student had bunked their colleges, housewives were not busy in their kitchens, and everybody was there (in great numbers) on Mumbai roads, waiting for a glimpse of our new, young heroes. I decided to watch it ‘live’ on TV and saw the road leading from Sahara airport to the Wankhede stadium dotted with cricketer fans; you could see them dancing, playing drums and singing ‘Chak de India’ songs.
The motorcade moved through Mumbai streets following the route via Bandra, Mahim, Haji Ali, Marine drive to the Wankhede Stadium and it took cricketers five and half hours to reach the stadium where the award winning ceremony was to take place and all the fifteen crickets were standing on the top of the open-air bus and waving to the crowd through out their journey.
The stadium was also full to its brim with no breathing space and they received a warm welcome from the cheering crowd of nearly fifty thousand audience. This was the first ever ‘20-20 World Cup’ and it was the historical moment of the cricket victory that nobody would want to miss. It was the reception that India has never witnessed before and will be remembered for a very long time. The ceremony was flagged off with the opening speech by Sharad Pawar, the president of the BCCI.
The players were honored with prize money of eighty lakhs per person, a shawl, bouquet and a gift (a silver plate).
Dhoni was very much impressed by the attitude of the fans and he realized that winning the match is not important only to the cricketers but also important to people of India and he promised to give his one hundred percent performance for every match. He thanked his team players who gave their best performance and promised that they would play the match as it was supposed to be play…play to win…..
What was disgraceful was that during the ceremony, the politician occupied the front row with only Dhoni sitting with BCCI official, while rest of the players occupied the back row and I was wondering who the real heroes were?
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