28th April 2012- Lord’s
The day began with the heavens pouring but for me it had to be a special day of my life. After the customary sumptuous buffet breakfast; I decided to proceed to Lords, the Mecca of cricket; the place every cricketing buff like me dreams of visiting at least once in a lifetime.
Walked to Knightsbridge Station; took the Piccadilly Line train to Green Park and then the Jubilee Line train to St John’s Wood. Amidst the downpour, I began my walk down to Lords with the eagerness of a devotee visiting a temple.
As I entered the ground through the Grace Gate, I was almost in a trance. Everything in this country is well organised; so I had no hesitation in taking a conducted tour of Lords for only GBP 15/-. Our guide, a solicitor by profession, seemed more interested in cricket than any one I have seen in my life.
Just so you know my dear reader, we were a group of ten comprising six Australians, three localites and yours truly holding the Indian tri-colour. During the course of our tour, scheduled for an hour and forty minutes, our guide asked many quiz questions and most humbly as I may state, I was the only person who gave all the answers, and correct ones at that.
Give me a pat on my back, if you like; the guide remarked jocularly that my tour fees should have been waived off but unfortunately that cannot be done.
First we stopped at the long room on the ground floor of the pavilion; a 90 feet room where nearly 600 people can sit. This is where the members enjoy a drink as they watch a test match. It has big glass windows for the audience who do not have to withstand the chill of the weather and yet can watch the match from the ground level. The long room has two doors; one opening to the ground and the other to the staircase. I dare not say this is the stairway to heaven - every time a wicket falls, the new batsman walks down the staircase, through the members in the long room and into the field and the dismissed batsmen takes the way back (imagine the plight of someone who is out for a duck and has to take the walk back this way no sooner than he arrived in the middle).
For a moment, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what was going on in the mind of a young lad of 24 as he took a walk along this path to the middle on that ‘summer of 96’-the walk that heralded the arrival of the ‘Prince of Calcutta’ – the beginning of a generation of ‘Dadagiri’; the birth of a man who was to script Indian cricket history in his own way.
I also tried to imagine the feeling of another 24 year old Indian as he held aloft the Prudential World Cup on 25th June 1983 on the balcony of the pavilion; Kapil Dev and his team had destroyed the mighty Caribbean team at this venue and shook the whole world.
We may have won the World Cup for the second time; but to the present genre who have watched the game on 25th June 1983- 2nd April 2011 will never be as captivating or enthralling as the earlier one. It is like first love- which never fades.
From the long room we proceeded to the dressing room. As one goes up the stairs; to the right is the home dressing room where we went first. Our enthusiastic guide was eager to show us where Andrew Strauss sits to where Kevin Pietersen sits and which window was accidentally broken after the bat ‘slipped’ from Matt Prior’s hand in the recently held India England test match. There are huge wooden boards containing the names of English players who have hit a century in any test match at Lords or have taken 5 wickets in an innings or 10 in a match. Ian Botham is the only person to have his name in both the batsmen’ and bowler’s lists and also holds the record for the best bowling figures in an innings by an Englishman at Lords. No wonder, one of his fellow cricketers and then skipper of England had asked him after one of his numerous superlative performances “who writes your scripts”?
From the home dressing room we proceeded to the visitors’ dressing room. Here the boards had many familiar names that evoked lot of sentiments for me; most notably Dilip Vengsarkar with three entries for his three centuries at Lords; Saurav Ganguly for his debut century; Mohammed Azharuddin for his hundred in 1990-91; Rahul Dravid for the century at the twilight of his career and even Ajit Agarkar for that blitzkrieg hundred of his. Kapil Dev figured in the list of successful bowlers for his 5 wicket haul in the 1982 series.
Interestingly, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar had never scored a century for India in any test at Lords; he scored 188 for Rest of the World against MCC in the Bicentenary Test match and so figures in the list.
As one went through the records; it was surprising that some of the greatest cricketers of our era do not figure in the list. Two of the greatest batsmen of modern times have never scored a hundred in Lords- Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara; so haven’t Clive Lloyd and Javed Miandad; while among bowlers, the most notable missing names are Dennis Lillee, Shane Warne and Imran Khan, arguably the best all-rounder of his times.
I went out to the balcony and sat at the cement bench from which Sourav Ganguly had waived his shirt to the whole world- passion on his sleeves.
We were also shown the Ashes, kept in a small urn surrounded by a glass case, but insured for a few billion pounds. While our guide passionately spoke of the Ashes duels, I was in a pensive mood thinking of the Prudential World Cup. Probably our guide read my thoughts and so he specifically took me to see the Prudential Cup which we had won in 1983 but now adorns the Lords’ museum. As any other Indian; I felt very emotional as I watched the Prudential Trophy on the balcony of the museum.
Photography is prohibited in both the pavilion and the museum; so we trudged along to the newly designed media box which gave us a fantastic view of the ground and the adjoining stands.
As the tour got over, I took the walk out through the Grace Gate, filled with a sense of accomplishment- a feeling of having seen something which I will cherish for years to come.
Here, I sit in my room late at night, in my humble attempt to pen down the experiences of a thoroughly memorable afternoon, I hum to myself
“Jokhon Shobai Mogon Ghumero Ghorey
Amar Ghoom Niyo He Horon Korey
Ekla Ghorey Chupey Chupey
Esho Kebol Shurer Rupey
Amar Chokher Joler Diyo Shaara”
(When the world is in peaceful slumber, rob the sleep from my eyes. Silently tip toe in to my room Oh Lord and answer my tearful prayers.)
- “Amar Nishitho Raatero Badolo Dhaara” from Tagore
The day began with the heavens pouring but for me it had to be a special day of my life. After the customary sumptuous buffet breakfast; I decided to proceed to Lords, the Mecca of cricket; the place every cricketing buff like me dreams of visiting at least once in a lifetime.
Walked to Knightsbridge Station; took the Piccadilly Line train to Green Park and then the Jubilee Line train to St John’s Wood. Amidst the downpour, I began my walk down to Lords with the eagerness of a devotee visiting a temple.
As I entered the ground through the Grace Gate, I was almost in a trance. Everything in this country is well organised; so I had no hesitation in taking a conducted tour of Lords for only GBP 15/-. Our guide, a solicitor by profession, seemed more interested in cricket than any one I have seen in my life.
Just so you know my dear reader, we were a group of ten comprising six Australians, three localites and yours truly holding the Indian tri-colour. During the course of our tour, scheduled for an hour and forty minutes, our guide asked many quiz questions and most humbly as I may state, I was the only person who gave all the answers, and correct ones at that.
Give me a pat on my back, if you like; the guide remarked jocularly that my tour fees should have been waived off but unfortunately that cannot be done.
First we stopped at the long room on the ground floor of the pavilion; a 90 feet room where nearly 600 people can sit. This is where the members enjoy a drink as they watch a test match. It has big glass windows for the audience who do not have to withstand the chill of the weather and yet can watch the match from the ground level. The long room has two doors; one opening to the ground and the other to the staircase. I dare not say this is the stairway to heaven - every time a wicket falls, the new batsman walks down the staircase, through the members in the long room and into the field and the dismissed batsmen takes the way back (imagine the plight of someone who is out for a duck and has to take the walk back this way no sooner than he arrived in the middle).
For a moment, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what was going on in the mind of a young lad of 24 as he took a walk along this path to the middle on that ‘summer of 96’-the walk that heralded the arrival of the ‘Prince of Calcutta’ – the beginning of a generation of ‘Dadagiri’; the birth of a man who was to script Indian cricket history in his own way.
I also tried to imagine the feeling of another 24 year old Indian as he held aloft the Prudential World Cup on 25th June 1983 on the balcony of the pavilion; Kapil Dev and his team had destroyed the mighty Caribbean team at this venue and shook the whole world.
We may have won the World Cup for the second time; but to the present genre who have watched the game on 25th June 1983- 2nd April 2011 will never be as captivating or enthralling as the earlier one. It is like first love- which never fades.
From the long room we proceeded to the dressing room. As one goes up the stairs; to the right is the home dressing room where we went first. Our enthusiastic guide was eager to show us where Andrew Strauss sits to where Kevin Pietersen sits and which window was accidentally broken after the bat ‘slipped’ from Matt Prior’s hand in the recently held India England test match. There are huge wooden boards containing the names of English players who have hit a century in any test match at Lords or have taken 5 wickets in an innings or 10 in a match. Ian Botham is the only person to have his name in both the batsmen’ and bowler’s lists and also holds the record for the best bowling figures in an innings by an Englishman at Lords. No wonder, one of his fellow cricketers and then skipper of England had asked him after one of his numerous superlative performances “who writes your scripts”?
From the home dressing room we proceeded to the visitors’ dressing room. Here the boards had many familiar names that evoked lot of sentiments for me; most notably Dilip Vengsarkar with three entries for his three centuries at Lords; Saurav Ganguly for his debut century; Mohammed Azharuddin for his hundred in 1990-91; Rahul Dravid for the century at the twilight of his career and even Ajit Agarkar for that blitzkrieg hundred of his. Kapil Dev figured in the list of successful bowlers for his 5 wicket haul in the 1982 series.
Interestingly, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar had never scored a century for India in any test at Lords; he scored 188 for Rest of the World against MCC in the Bicentenary Test match and so figures in the list.
As one went through the records; it was surprising that some of the greatest cricketers of our era do not figure in the list. Two of the greatest batsmen of modern times have never scored a hundred in Lords- Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara; so haven’t Clive Lloyd and Javed Miandad; while among bowlers, the most notable missing names are Dennis Lillee, Shane Warne and Imran Khan, arguably the best all-rounder of his times.
I went out to the balcony and sat at the cement bench from which Sourav Ganguly had waived his shirt to the whole world- passion on his sleeves.
We were also shown the Ashes, kept in a small urn surrounded by a glass case, but insured for a few billion pounds. While our guide passionately spoke of the Ashes duels, I was in a pensive mood thinking of the Prudential World Cup. Probably our guide read my thoughts and so he specifically took me to see the Prudential Cup which we had won in 1983 but now adorns the Lords’ museum. As any other Indian; I felt very emotional as I watched the Prudential Trophy on the balcony of the museum.
Photography is prohibited in both the pavilion and the museum; so we trudged along to the newly designed media box which gave us a fantastic view of the ground and the adjoining stands.
As the tour got over, I took the walk out through the Grace Gate, filled with a sense of accomplishment- a feeling of having seen something which I will cherish for years to come.
Here, I sit in my room late at night, in my humble attempt to pen down the experiences of a thoroughly memorable afternoon, I hum to myself
“Jokhon Shobai Mogon Ghumero Ghorey
Amar Ghoom Niyo He Horon Korey
Ekla Ghorey Chupey Chupey
Esho Kebol Shurer Rupey
Amar Chokher Joler Diyo Shaara”
(When the world is in peaceful slumber, rob the sleep from my eyes. Silently tip toe in to my room Oh Lord and answer my tearful prayers.)
- “Amar Nishitho Raatero Badolo Dhaara” from Tagore
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