Kolkata : The Only Sensible City in India

 

 As the euphoria of a cricket match win against arch-rival Pakistan in a high-voltage World Cup contest subsides, I was just pondering over the fact of imminent danger of the probability that this match was at one time going to be cancelled, and that Pakistan was about to give it a walk-over to India.

Thanks to Mr. Vir Bhadra Singh, the Chief Minister of Congress led Uttarakhand government, the match which was scheduled to be held at the picturesque Dharamshala, was going for a complete toss, as he expressed his inability to provide security to this event, .

The ICC, BCCI, NDA Government and PCA all went at a shell-shock, as no amount of cajoling and comforting to the CM yielded any result. they pondered over the alternative venues. Mumbai, or for that matter entire Maharashtra was certainly out of the radar, thanks to the obvious terror of Shiv Sena. Same with Bangalore. Chennai could not host a match due to legal issues regarding construction of three stands at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. Delhi too is having legal issues of DDCA. The rest prospective venues were silent and at a watching game.  

And then comes the saviour in the form of a team called Mamata Bannerjee and Saurav Ganguly, who promptly agreed to seize the opportunity and proposed to host the match at their fortress called Eden Gardens. Its not that they didn't had their problems : Mamata had the over-whelming and over- impending issues of forthcoming Assembly Elections and Saurav already had his hands tied with the forthcoming final match to be hosted. But as they say : Cometh the hour, Cometh the man. Moreover they had the complete trust in the Kolkata crowd.

Finally, when the day came, inspite of the odds of rains, what an event it was hosted. Right from the way Saurav, as a Head of CAB marshaled his resources to make the ground, match ready after the showers. In fact a President of state cricket association going up to the ground and personally managing the task, is unprecedented. 

Then came the felicitation of the stalwarts of Bowling legends from Pakistan and Batting legends from Indian side, 2249 International wickets and 54,553 runs in between, followed by the rendering of Pakistani National Anthem by illustrious Shafqat Amanat Ali and last but not the least, the Goosebumps of Amitabh Bachchan singing the Indian National Anthem in his soulful voice.  

Matches are played, won and lost, but what Kolkata showed on the Saturday night of March 19, 2016, will be long remembered as a folklore. With 61,000 effervescent, intelligent crowd inside Eden Gardens, and passionate millions outside, it showed that Kolkata is not only the worshiper of the great game, its is city of of genuine sportsmanship and a sensible confidence builder among the senseless, despicale, degenerated souls of other cities of India.  .