Namaskaaram! (Hello!)
Being born and brought up in a country where cricket is a religion, what my childhood looked like is anyone’s guess. From sunrise to sunset, from lush green grounds to paddy fields, from school/college corridors to public roads on a strike (hartal) day, I, like any other cricket fan, saw the possibility of playing cricket everywhere. The short run to the nearby grocery store saw myself imitating Shoaib Akhtar or Allan Donald, and using exam clipboards for defending or smashing paper balls brought out the Rahul Dravid or Virender Sehwag in me. When I found out that a World Cup warm-up match was being played in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) between South Africa and New Zealand, I didn’t have to think twice to purchase the tickets.
This time, however, my partner for the trip was not Govind since he was never a fan of the sport. Sandeep, my junior and friend from school who is also my best friend Swaroop’s brother, came along with me. We had travelled to Thiruvananthapuram in 2017 to watch the India versus New Zealand T20 International match. It rained so heavily that night, that the match was reduced to a 10-over-a-side one, though we were happy to see some action at all, considering it was pouring down the entire day. We were thrilled to have had the opportunity to witness a great match of cricket with some of our favourite cricketers participating in it.
Coming back to our present trip, both Sandeep and I thought we’d catch a train to and from Thiruvananthapuram so that we wouldn’t have to go through the traffic leading up to Thiruvananthapuram and inside the city as well. We travelled in Chennai- Thiruvananthapuram Mail, which was on time throughout the journey.
It was a memorable journey for me especially since the last time I was on a train was in January 2020, right before the Covid outbreak. It had been 3.5 years since I had been on a train and I wanted to make the most of it by capturing a lot of photos and enjoying views of the backwaters of Kollam district as we passed them by.
We reached the destination on time. We were thrilled to walk out of the station to see clear blue sky above us. According to leading weather apps, we were expecting thunderstorms in Thiruvananthapuram on that day. However, we were still praying for the rain to not play spoilsport later that evening. As the match was expected to finish by 9:30-10:00 P.M., we didn’t want to travel back home that night. We decided to reserve a hotel room to stay over and catch a train back home the next day. We stayed at Akhil Classic, a good 3-star hotel very close to Thampanoor, the main transportation hub of Thiruvananthapuram, which houses both the Trivandrum Central Railway Station as well as the KSRTC Bus Stand. The hotel is only a kilometre away and there are many Uber Autorickshaws ready to take you for Rs. 40. We checked-in, freshened up, had lunch and caught an Uber Cab to the Greenfield International Stadium, which boasts of a lot of new features and facilities for a variety of events.
The match had started by the time we walked into the stadium and we were honestly surprised at the low crowd turnout, considering it was a national holiday. Both Sandeep and I have been fans of the South African cricket team since our childhood, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see them play. New Zealand had won the toss and had elected to bat first. They were trying to put up a huge score on the board to make sure they had enough to win the match in case the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) would be employed to decide the winner.
In a matter of 2 hours, what we feared was going to happen, happened. Dark clouds started roaming above the stadium hinting at the imminent rain. The ground staff were waiting on the sidelines/boundary by then to cover the ground should the rain come splashing down without any mercy. The most important part of the ground is the pitch and that has to be protected at any cost. In the photo below, you would be able to view the ground staff on their feet (lower left corner) with the covers to run on to the field.
It slowly started drizzling and before we knew it, the covers were brought on to ensure safety of the pitch and the 30-yard circle, especially the run-up areas used by the bowlers. We both kept checking our phones to ensure that it was a passing storm and that the play would resume at the earliest. Even if the outfield had some water, it didn’t seem to be of concern as we were told by an official that this ground is equipped with some technology which can dry the outfield quickly. All hope was not lost!
After a 20-minute delay, the covers were taken off. The crowd present there gave a loud cheer as the ground staff ran towards the sidelines/boundary with the covers, which unofficially announced the resumption of the match. When the umpires and players walked back on to the field, they were greeted with loud cheer and applause.
We Malayalis (Keralites) have a way of welcoming players and making them our own. When Steve Coppell was the Head Coach of Kerala Blasters, we lovingly called him Coppell Aashaan (Coppell Guru/Teacher). Same was the case when Iain Hume was the captain of Kerala Blasters; we affectionately called him Hume Ettan (Hume Brother). It was no different in the case of Trent Boult, the Kiwi fast bowler who has a huge fan following in India. Spectators kept calling him Boult Ettan (Boult Brother) and kept on chanting his name. Occasionally, he would turn around and acknowledge the crowd. There was a superb catch which Boult took near to our pavilion (stand) and the entire crowd went crazy. When he came back to the sidelines/boundary, he clapped and thanked the crowd for supporting him. It was quite heartwarming to see him appreciating the support he received.
Sandeep and I decided to leave a bit early because we were worried about finding transportation back to our hotel in case the rain returned. The cabs/autorickshaws were not allowed to come near to the stadium due to security reasons and we would have had to walk for a kilometre in the rain if we had to leave the stadium once it started raining. However, seeing the field under the floodlights was a different feeling altogether. Before we left the stadium, we stood there for a minute to take in the magnitude of an event such as the Cricket World Cup.
We had dinner and went to sleep after reaching our hotel. We had spent enough energy for one day. We were treated to excellent breakfast the next morning and the view of the Gopuram of the world-famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple from the rooftop restaurant was simply ethereal. Once we finished breakfast, we went back to our room, rested for some time, packed up and checked-out for our return journey in Kerala Express. I used to travel to Delhi a lot during my college days in that train, and this journey brought back a lot of fond memories of my college days and friends.
Though I started playing cricket when I was 5 years old, my cricket craze reached another level when India hosted the Cricket World Cup jointly with Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1996. From then on, I’ve never let a chance to play cricket go to waste. Just like most of the guys who witnessed the surge of cricket in India in the 90s, I was, I am and I always will be a cricket fan!
Appo kaanam! (See you!)
Love, Vlogabonds
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