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
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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!!!!
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