Fan frenzy reaches its peak

Crowd lost its sense of proportion and perched themselves atop cars to dance. For once, no one seemed to mind

The mood in the city was clearly ecstatic as Team India landed this morning at city’s international airport at the international airport at Sahar. There were around 6,000 people waiting at the airport for their heroes since early morning. The air was vibrant with balloons, DJs, music and a lot of cheer at the otherwise serene arrival lounge. Mahi ve, Chak de and sunno gaur se duniyawalon were the oft-played numbers.

The crowd largely constituted young fans. No wonder, they were happy the younger players were responsible for this feat. “Now the Tendulkars and Gangulys will have to fight for a place in the team,” said 21-year-old Avneel Gupta.

“It was all the more remarkable that the feat was achieved in the absence of the senior players like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. We really hope that the young team India goes a long way,” said Edmund Pinto from Worli.

Long way they went, spending over five hours on the road to cover a 30 km-stretch on an open bus, sending the crowd into a frenzy. The crowd, at every point on the route, went wild whenever they got a glimpse of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. No amount of security and barricading was sufficient to control the excited crowd.

The team got into a specially decorated bus for the 30-km journey to the Wankhede Stadium. The open top double decker ‘Mumbai Darshan’ bus was transformed into Nilambari — as a tribute to the boys in blue.

Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth broke into an impromtu bhangra jig in the bus to the numbers that were being played on the loudspeakers. Incessant rains did not deter the crowd from gathering on the streets.

Young and old alike cheered the boys in blue. The streets were thronged like never before and quite a few followed the team from the airport to the stadium. The boys in blue honoured the fan’s emotional outbursts and reciprocated — some blew kisses to girls.

Traffic came to a standstill when the bus passed. Crowds lost their sense of proportions and perched themselves on top of cars to dance. For once, no one seemed to mind.

Quite a few felt that defeating Pakistan added that extra zing to the World Cup win. They however also felt that it was unfair to compare it to the 1983 World Cup victory.

Markand Joshi, a resident of Marine Lines, said, “ I am very happy that we have finally got the World Cup, though Twenty20.”

The bus finally reached the stadium, packed with fans from all corners of Mumbai. Firecrackers added to cacophony of the loud music.

The crowd went beserk and started running on the field at the stadium. The situation was brought under control by State Reserve Police Force and beat commanders.

Wankhede stadium had come alive from 6.30 in the morning with crowds streaming in to congratulate the men in blue. Youngsters dared the rains to cheer their heroes with tri-colour painted on their faces. They were  glued to their mobiles getting an update on the current position of the team as the stadium rocked to chak de music.

It was not just the youngsters, but also middle-aged women like Jyoti Jain, a 50 year old resident of Bhayandar,  geometry at a local school.

She had left home in wee hours to reach Wankhede stadium in time. “I am here to take snaps of Dhoni,” she said. The frenzy rose by the second as the entrouge took over four hours to reach the stadium.

The crowd went berserk when the bus was seen around 1.35 pm. Some climbed the trees to get a glimpse of the cricketers.

The crowd invaded the ground breaking fences when the Team India took their victory lap. The police had to resort to
a mild lathi charge.

Dipti Sonawala, Manisha Singhal & Ashutosh Shukla