DREAMS DO COME TRUE II

Continuing from where I left yesterday. The first ball bowled by Zaheer Khan and a lot of thoughts were going through my mind. Will he be Zaheer of the 2011 World Cup, or the guy who bowled the first over to Gilchrist in the 2003 World Cup final? Thankfully, he did well in the first six overs as he conceded just 16 compared to the 15 he gave in the first over back in 2003.

When the bowling was done from the North Stand End, the great man Sachin Tendulkar was standing at fine leg, where I was seated. Just looking at his body language, one got the feeling he knew this was it. We gave him a standing ovation when he first walked towards our stand. Everybody forgot that Amir Khan, Sunil Shetty among other stars were sitting right above us, everyone was looking at the man who symbolizes hope for millions of Indians.

People tell me that I am the biggest fan they have met but when I saw the ovation Tendulkar got I felt I was one among many. Nevertheless I was happy to be there to cheer him to fulfill his dream. A dream which he saw and passed on to all of us. We started believing in dreams when we saw a sixteen year old take on the might of Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. He made us believe that if you have talent and are honest with your work, you can achieve anything. Sachin tough us to dream when he said last year “Life would be nothing without dreams.” I knew no matter what, we were there for him and the entire team.

During the sixth over of the innings, we realized that Rajnikant was amongst us. He got a huge reception and I immediately typed a text “Rajnikant is here, we will win for sure.” The moment I pressed “Send”, Upul Tharanga was caught at slip. A brilliant catch by Sehwag ensured Tharanga walked back.

The way the Indian team was fielding it felt as if their lives were at stake. Everybody was diving around, saving whatever they could. Yuvraj made a brilliant save and from where I was sitting I could see him almost parallel to the ground. Sachin made a brilliant save at the boundary near my stand and it just felt as if it was our day.

At one stage it didn’t look as if Sri Lanka would make 274 but Jayawardene batted very well with the lower order to help them get there. Jayawardene has always been one of my favourite batsmen. I always wanted to watch a long innings from him and when he walked out to bat I thought he would deliver but I said “Please not today, we want the cup for a billion people and a special Indian who lives in their hearts.”

He batted brilliantly silencing the crowds quite a few times. The melodious Lankan music was being played every time they hit a boundary. I loved the music but didn’t want to hear it too often. Kulasekara hit a six just above my head. I was getting in position to catch it but it sailed over. Perera then swung his willow around to get to 274. The crowd was quite.

The score looked inflated. I called my dad and like a kid I said “I am scared.” He said “Son, what did I tell you, if we are champions we will chase it down. It is a challenge and champions are made when they complete them. Hang in there son and cheer
them, that is what you are there for.”

The second ball Sehwag was out lbw and he called for a review. From what I saw, real time, naked eye, it looked out. When the confirmation came, silence. I just bent over to see who was walking out. I saw Gautam Gambhir and his body language looked really positive. He hit the first ball for four and Wankhede was back to it’s noisest best. It got even noisier with each run Sachin scored especially when he hit two classy boundaries of Kulasekara.

When Lasith Malinga was running to bowl the first ball of the sixth over, my inner voice said “Sachin please survive this ball and you will win this one yourself.” I do not know where this voice came from and my worst fear came to life. As Sachin walked back, there was pin drop silence. Lankans felt as if they had won half the battle. I was almost in tears, and couldn’t bear the thought of losing again. As he walked back I stood up to applaud him, looking at me the others around me stood up. Gradually, the whole stand stood up and looking at us, the celebrities stood up. I felt, at least I did something to respect the man but I wanted the World Cup to see the priceless smile on his face.

In walked Virat Kohli and like Gambhir his body language was very positive from the moment he left the dressing room. I was still in tears when dad called, he asked “Heartbroken?” In a very low voice I said “Yes” and almost burst out crying. He said “Son, I say again you are there to cheer, you shouldn’t lose hope. If you guys can cheer the youngsters they will do it. What was the first thing I told you when you started playing for your school? A team isn’t run by one player, he has to play with ten others. We have the guys to do it.” The man sitting next to me, with whom I could discuss tactics etc consoled me and said “A matter of a partnership man.”

Kohli and Gambhir changed the game in the bowling powerplay when they scored 40. The momentum was back with us. I kept reminding myself of the India Sri Lanka ODI at Kolkata in 2009. The same batsmen were in a similar position chasing 300+, both got hundred and we won. When Kohli got out, I expected Yuvraj to come but it was Dhoni. I immediately called home and aid “Dad, you know who has walked out?” Dad said “Ads are on, how would I know?” I said “Dhoni, he isnt in form, are you serious?” My dad said “Well, maybe a masterstroke in the making. Let him play son before we pass off an judgment.”

Dhoni and Gambhir just milked the Lankan bowling. Whenever Chakde India or Vande Mataram was played, all 31,000 of us sang it with all emotion to cheer up the guys in the middle. When the number of runs were finally less than the number of balls, there was a huge cheer. Each run Gambhir scored in his 90’s was cheered. At 97 he did something brainless, a hundred would have made him the immortal of immortals in Indian cricket, but as he walked back we knew he had done his job. Yuvraj walked out and as he made his way everybody felt “come on, just finish it. We cant wait.” The rule of life stands “The closer you get to your long awaited target, the farther away it seems.” It felt like hours, the last few minutes of the game. A lot of combinations were coming to mind and I was never more nervous.

There were a few run out calls, one referral, just to increase our nervousness. But when Dhoni hit three boundaries in two over, the game was ours. When the last six was hit, I felt as if it was hit towards me. I felt “Please come to me, I won’t give it to anybody.” As it disappeared near the dressing rooms I knew we had done it. The players ran out to greet the captain and the prince. We all waited for one man and when he ran out, the decibel levels of the stadium would have beaten three aircrafts.

The emotions were too much; we could see some of them crying tears of joy on the big screen, as that happened, I remembered almost everything since 2007. The effigies, the jersey episode in the mall etc, and then I looked in the middle and a tear came out of my eye. All of us were hugging each other. We barely knew each other but had been together for a moment of a lifetime.

Throughout these four years, I felt a part of this team. When they won I celebrated, when they lost I was gutted. I cried when we were knocked out the last time. When this one was in our hands, I felt as if it was in my hands and as if I had done it. No other personal achievement felt greater than this. My country had just won the World Cup and I was one among a billion happy people. A billion happy people, a sixth of the world's population, that's what was coming to my mind. It was made possible by fifteen men out there with the help of support staff whose contribution cannot be estomated in any terms but simply priceless.

I just felt the dream was achieved. Listening to Yuvraj, Dhoni and the other players was amazing. The cup was ours, it isn’t going anywhere for four years. The victory laps were very special and I was just soaking the moment. Taking a mental picture of almost everything. I had lived something that I had dreamed off. Then came the moment when Dhoni lifted the cup. When he got it in his hand, I said “Yeah that is it!!!! It is ours.”

As I got out, I ran towards the Churchgate station, ran on the platforms shouting “INDIA, INDIA, Cup Hamaara hai.” I met my uncle and he could see it in my eyes, all the emotion. In the train I celebrated and danced with random strangers. We clicked photos too. As I got down at the Santa Cruz station, there was a street party with a model of the World Cup. I joined them and danced a bit and then went to a nearby restaurant to eat. When we went home in an auto, there were many cars celebrating, honking and waving the flags. I stuck my head out of the auto and yelled “INDIA, INDIA.” Yes, I was living my dream.

Sports teach us how to live. The Indian team has taught me to believe in my dreams and if I do they will come true. Today, as a country we are facing problems with corruption scams etc. This victory has given us hope that we can overcome these problems. It gives us the belief that we need. Mandela used Rugby to unite a nation in 1995 similarly this World Cup win couldn’t have come at a better time. We as a nation needed it in such testing times to bring a smile to our faces.

DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!!!! HANG IN THERE!!!! BELIEVE!!!! AND YOU WILL DO IT!!!!

I will end with Mandela’s (played by Morgan Freeman) last lines from the movie Invictus “I thank whatever the gods maybe for my unconquerable soul, I am the Master of My Fate, I am the Captain of My Soul.”

DREAMS DO COME TRUE I

The Dream has turned to reality! A dream that was seen by nearly one billion people and was left to fifteen players with a support staff to fulfill it. When Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit Nuwan Kulasekara for a six, the entire nation celebrated as a dream had been fulfilled.

The movie Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon is one of my favourites. Sitting in the Wankhede Stadium I could see it unfold in reality. A team backed by people at home, playing a final with one dream, it was just like a movie.

On the morning of April 2, 2011, when I opened my eyes after a restless sleep, I said to myself “This is it!! It is now or never.” The pain of the last World Cup was unbearable and as Sachin had dreamt about this day way back then, even I did. On March 24, 2007, the morning after the loss I wore an India T-shirt and went to a nearby mall. People laughed at me and some even had the courage to ask me “Really?” I said “A true fan is the one who supports his team through good and bad times, this is a bad time and we will come back.”

On the morning of April 2nd, all this was going through my mind and I felt that a World Cup win would cap a great comeback from the nadir of the last world Cup. I call it a great comeback because; the team got a new winning formula immediately after the last World Cup. The wins against South Africa in Ireland, a good campaign in England and the ICC World T20 win lifted the team from the lows and when I look back that was the spark required to lift this World Cup. It is not easy to comeback the way they did, but it is even tougher to maintain consistency, which they did by beating Australia in the CB series and the subsequent successful campaigns.

As I walked towards the new Wankhede Stadium, the new stands had me in awe. When I entered it, it looked like a huge arena. I immediately texted my friends “In the theater of Dreams……WANKHEDE!!!!” The stands were almost empty as I was one of the first ones to enter. Even with no people in it, the stage looked set; it did look like a theater of dreams. This was the day Team India’s dream would come true.

The crowd starting building up and by toss time i.e. 2 PM IST, the stadium was nearly full. I have never seen so many India Flags in my entire life. I have never seen so many people wearing blue. It was a sea of blue at the Wankhede and my estimate is out of the 31,000 people there, atleast 25,000 would have been wearing blue. If they didn’t have an India jersey, they wore a Mumbai Indians jersey, if they didn’t that as well, they wore normal blue T-shirts to support the team they love the most.

The teams then made their way into the field to practice. Few of the players bowled, a few knocked the ball. They were trying to take their mind away from all the hype but they knew that it was the most important game of their lives
.
We all were waiting for one man to walk out. The man who has scaled almost all the possible summits in international cricket, the man who was a symbol of the dream of a nation to capture the cup, words fall short when you want to describe Sachin Tendulkar. When he walked out, as expected there was a huge cheer. He looked calm and determined to fulfill his dream of a lifetime. I just felt “Nothing can be more beautifully and poetically set, playing a World Cup final in a city you grew up in, the city where you learnt to play the sport you love the most, the city you love, this must be destiny, is it a dream?”

The toss time arrived and there was confusion. Nobody knew what Sangakkara called. In the stands we had no clue as to what had happened. I called home and asked my dad what he saw on television. He told me that the call wasn’t heard because of the noise and that Sangakkara had won the toss and elected to bat first. I was a little scared. The old saying goes “put them on the board in the crucial games and you are always hard to beat.” My dad said ”Don’t worry, if we are a champion team we should chase whatever.”

The anthems came and singing it with many others was a moment I will never forget. It makes you feel proud of the fact that you are an Indian and that you are here to support a cause that can bring happiness to a billion people. When we finished the anthems with “Jaya He, Jaya He, Jaya He” nothing else could be louder.

The Lankan openers walked out to bat, and the stage was set, all of us were ready……..

To be continued……

HOW THE DREAM TURNED INTO REALITY!!!!