Never a dull moment in our expat life - the weekend before last we were in Dubai, and last weekend Hyderabad. On Saturday we made the short flight up to Hyderabad to watch the Australians play the Indians in a One Day cricket match. The opportunity to see some friends from when we lived there last year, and to hopefully see a good cricket match, made the decision a no brainer.
It was another early start, and when you get up at 5.40am every day to catch the school bus, it isn't something I like to do on weekends too. But, alas, we made it to the hotel and scoffed down some lunch before heading out to Rajiv Ghandi International Stadium. We had arranged to have a car and driver while we were in Hyderabad and this driver was the worst driver I have ever ever had. He didn't get above 30km and hour even on the motorway, he pumped the brake and actually pumped the accelerator as well. Max and I were green within 10 minutes. He was horrible, and as expected, he only lasted Saturday, and we magically had a new driver and car on Sunday :)
We have been lucky enough to go to a cricket match previously in India, back in late 2013, so we were very aware of the many rules that you have to follow at an event like this. Most of these rules are around what you 'cannot' bring in to the stadium. Some of these rules are:
No food
No cameras, laptops, binoculars, batteries
No banners - even though they sell Indian flags outside the ground - they sell the flag with a stick in it and then promptly remove the stick before you walk away, as that is not allowed in the ground........
No cigarettes, lighters, matches
No coins !!!!!!
No helmets
No water-bottles
No metal objects or pens
Not sure what the issue is with most of these items but in some places, phones are even banned. I can hear you laughing and wondering how this is all policed. Well, I can assure you that it most definitely is policed and I was very well 'frisked', in fact I felt quite violated in the process, and nothing was getting by these security guards. I think the guards enjoy 'feeling up' the westerners…….
We had agreed that we were going to eat before and after and avoid eating at the ground. This was a very good decision, as the food options were masala popcorn, masala french fires, chilli pizza, ice creams and warm Pepsi. hmmm, yum ??? Oh, and the cricket is usually a dry event in India - a bit strange for Mike to be sitting at the cricket for the day, without a beer in hand.
The game sadly did not go our way and I am not going to give a rundown of the match and thoughts on the good and bad. However, we did have fabulous seats (thanks to Mike) and we were sitting directly above the Australian team bench. So, we had the support staff and additional players right in front of us. The boys were so excited with the whole experience and they cheered loud and proud. They were even picked out of the crowd by Nathan Lyon (Gary !) and he had the team manager bring some signed caps up to the boys - one from Pat Cummins and one from Nathan Lyon. It was a super special moment and the boys could not believe how lucky they were. Max has slept with his every night since and still looks at it in awe unable to quite believe he has it.
The noise at a cricket match in India is something you just cannot understand unless you have experienced it. We actually left the ground with sore/ringing ears. It's bonkers - I have added a small snippet at the end of the blog but I assure you this really doesn't do the noise justice.
The ground itself was very open and nicely laid out, and actually quite comfortable - however, as you will see in the photos below, there were electrical cables/wires everywhere, and there was barbed wire between the crowd and the ground. I was happy to not be too high up and to be in allocated seats - although no one seemed to be sitting in their allotted seats. It was like musical chairs for most of the crowd all day long. Mike had a about 15 different people sit next to him and they were all ultimately told to 'show ticket' and then move on ! The security and police were very present.
There was a crowd of 35,787 at the ground and we think there was probably 37,750 Indian supporters. We really did stand out in the crowd but it was a fabulous experience and I highly recommend to anyone who gets the chance to go.
got to love a selfie photo bomber !!
the boys were so excited to see the Aussies in India
lets go boys !!
we were on the big screen singing the anthem
security were on the ball - just a little nap between overs
It really was a great day - fabulous weather too !
Jack and I made friends with the guy with a great dye job !
The ground was not designed for kids to get boundary autographs , that's for sure !!
and these cables were everywhere, and I assume were 'live' !!
A bit of a problem with our flag being upside down :(
such big smiles
Just after they received their signed Aussie caps
there were a number of men with full body paint throughout the crowd - that's commitment
Comments
Post a Comment