Cricket and Chennai are inseparable

The chief minister’s death sent the city into a total shut-down for a day and the cyclone that ravaged the city, sent chills down the spine.  The M A Chidambaram Stadium was in tatters. Chairs were thrown out, sightscreens damaged and the roof was torn apart. But the groundsmen kept a tight vigil over the pitch. They worked overtime and replaced the sightscreen and the Chepauk Stadium was ready to host the fifth Test match. 

It was an inconsequential match in the series. India had swept the series 3-0 with their win in Mumbai but a couple of hours before the match started on Friday, the Chennai crowd welcomed the arrival of their favourite game. Serpentine queues were the norm before the match started and the tickets were sold like hot cakes. 

Aishwarya Ramamurthy, a student in a city college, wasn’t shy to skip studies and visit the stadium. “I have been an ardent cricket fan and with international cricket happening after three years, I felt it was my duty to come here and support the game,” she said.  For Karthikeyan, a software engineer, the Test match was an avenue for an outing with family. “I was lucky to get a season ticket online, just minutes after the booking was thrown open. My brother and I logged in from different places and booked tickets for our family. For the next five days, Chepauk is my home,” he said. Loyal fans of Murali Vijay and Ravichandran Ashwin, the hometown boys, flocked to the stadium and had wished for spectacular performances from their demi-gods. “We are aspiring cricketers. We have grown up watching Murali Vijay, Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik don the national colours. They have brought several laurels for the country. We want Vijay to score a century and Ashwin to pick up five wickets and set records for the most wickets in a series. We have even prayed for their success,” said Sathya and Anirudh, who were dressed in whites and appeared to have come straight from a net practice session. 

While the local fans were having a ball with chants of Ashwin and Kohli, an English fan with a yellow book caught the attention of many in the stands. Andy Clarke, who is from Yorkshire, is the editor of a fan magazine called ‘Corridor of uncertainty’, a phrase used by Geoffrey Boycott. The magazine is written by fans and has statistics pertaining to the current tour. “We started this magazine 15 years ago, on the lines of football fans. We get this magazine out for every England tour and is stocked with information and experience of the fans. Any English fan can contribute his experience of watching the match and we also have ‘analysts’ of the team’s performance at the end of the tour. It is a monthly magazine and is priced at Rs. 100,” Clarke said and sold about seven to eight magazines in a couple of minutes.