Test Match Special

Hockey is officially the national sport of India. This is clearly complete nonsense. In reality cricket is treated like a quasi-religion by the Indian people. Anyone from a kid on the street or a rickshaw driver to the richest businessman in Mumbai will have something to say on the subject. If cricket is treated like a religion, then Sachin Tendulkar is the religion’s deity. In what is likely to be his last year as a professional cricketer I was lucky enough to see him bat in front of a packed Delhi crowd last Sunday.

Getting to that point, almost inevitably, was not quite so easy. Tickets to the test match between India and Australia were advertised at Rs.100. However, what was not advertised was where to get them from. So on Saturday I went to the stadium hoping to get a ticket on the door. I asked a policeman where the ticket office was and he directed me three hundred metres down the road. I think that was very much an Indian three hundred metres, because it ended up being closer to 2km away. The ticket office was actually in a bank and there was a massive queue outside. Fortunately I met some Australian fans and they told me there was a policy of pushing foreigners to the front of the queue. After having to pay significantly more at the Taj Mahal and other places as a foreigner it was nice to see the discrimination work in my favour for once.

So I got my ticket and took a cycle rickshaw back to the stadium. There I found that I could not get in 

because I had my bag and my camera. I can almost understand that bags might be a security threat; even if they do have scanners at every metro station so could have them outside the stadium. But the rules against cameras are self-defeating and seem utterly ridiculous. If you are trying to market the experience of going to the cricket, and this should be the aim because test match crowds are starting to dwindle in India, surely it is a good idea to let people take pictures of them enjoying themselves so they can show their friends. These days when most people have a camera on their phone anyway it is completely unenforceable if the aim is to stop people taking pictures. I understand that there are rights issues involved, but surely taking a picture or video from the stand does not really compare with the pictures from the TV broadcast.

I gave the ticket away to a kid on the street. It certainly seemed to make his day. Perhaps naively I hope that the kid will be inspired by his day at the cricket and be inspired to train hard and one day play for India. Probably more realistically, if a little less romantic, he then sold the ticket at a highly inflated price on the street. But I will assume the former because I’m unlikely to be proven otherwise.

With the other guys I then returned to the stadium on Sunday. However, after making our way to the ticket office we found that as it was in a bank and it was a Sunday it was closed. So we had the almost unbelievable situation of not being able to buy a ticket because the ticket office was closed on the day of the match. There were Australian fans walking round the stadium trying to work out how to buy tickets. Really the BCCI need to sort their ticketing system out because it not fair for fans to travel all the way from Australia for a match and not be able to get tickets because they do not seem to be available anywhere.

So instead we were forced to get a touted ticket. In order to do this there was the rather amusing experience of trying to negotiate a price. We were on an auto rickshaw and so was the seller, so that we were negotiating a price while travelling side by side down the road. We agreed on a price of Rs.500 each which wasn’t too bad, but clearly considerably more expensive than the original price. I would not normally ever get a touted ticket, but if they do not provide you with the opportunity to buy one legally, what choice do you have?

So we eventually arrived at the stadium at lunch with Australia struggling at 90-5 in their second innings. Very quickly after lunch things got worse for our Australian friends. The ball was turning square on a bowler friendly wicket. Steve Smith was bowled and out came Mitchell Johnson. Sadly the Barmy Army were not there to give him a rousing welcome. Next ball he was also out bowled through the gate and Jadeja was on a hattrick. As it happened Peter Siddle kept it out well and played a terrific little attacking innings to get Australia up to beyond 150 which on a turning wicket might have been just about competitive. Australia lost their final five wickets in just over an hour. I had to explain to Harry, who had not been to a Test match before, that test cricket was not always like this.

India’s openers came out with attacking intent and raced along at more than 6 an over for the first 10 overs. In a test match that was remarkable and it knocked the stuffing out of the Australians. It has been a very long tour for them and they were looking a little weary in the field. Vijay was bowled, but it made very little difference as Pujara took the attack to the Australians. It got to the stage where it was clear that India were going to win and the crowd wanted to see Sachin bat. Kohli was dropped and the Indian crowd were visibly disappointed that their own batsman was still in. They started chanting ‘We want Sachin!’. I actually felt sorry for Kohli and it almost felt as if he gave his wicket away in the end to give the crowd what they wanted. But on the other hand I was in agreement with the rest of the Indian supporters. We were all really there to see the great man bat.

Out Tendulkar walked to the biggest cheer I’ve ever heard at a cricket ground. Getting towards the end of his career he might be tempted to retire, but that kind of ovation would make anyone want to carry on. He scored his first run edging the ball down the leg side. It was Sachin, so we can only assume it was deliberate. But Tendulkar is not a God, even if he is considered that way by the Indian people. He is human, and age is catching up with him like the rest of us. His centuries have dried up in the last couple of years and bowlers do not fear him as they once did. When he got out for 1 silence filled the stadium. I remember when I was in Ghana I was told that a member of the crowd at a football game had died because they were so shocked that the opposition had died. I did not believe that story, but the deathly silence when Tendulkar was given out made it seem almost plausible had I heard something similar had happened in this stadium.

Despite a little wobble India won pretty comfortably in the end. A 4-0 win has come as a massive relief to a cricket loving nation stung by the recent defeat to England. Whilst England and Australia have had contrasting results against India I would be careful not to read too much into it as we approach the Ashes this year. Australia’s troubles against spin will not be as much of a problem in English conditions. Indeed, the Aussie quicks (with the exception of Mitchell Johnson who was as awful as ever) looked pretty good in Indian conditions and will be a real threat under England’s cloudy skies.

This will not be my last experience watching cricket in India. I’ve booked tickets to the IPL match on Saturday between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals which should be an interesting experience, if utterly different to the test match. My next blog will be on my trip during Holi. I got back on Sunday, but have only just got round to writing this one so don’t expect another entry too quickly.