WESTBURY: Westbury is a small Long Island station where people don’t really do this, and so forth. Suddenly on Wednesday morning game, regular commuters going to New York City found themselves in the middle of a deep blue sea.
It is cricket that has come to the city of New York and it is making its debut as big boys who carry the cross helping this sport establish itself here. The buses ICC arranged to move fans from station to Nassau County ground had been virtually empty till now but it was different ball game on Wednesday morning.
Thousands of Indian supporters from around America and even Canada have decided to show their adoptive homes just what “cricket entertainment” means. “When the NFL Final happens, USA goes into an overdrive. We try to soak in, but we don’t always feel like being part of that party. But this is our very own; this is what we live for,” Abhay (he drives all the way from Boston for 4 hours), told TOI.
As many younger Indian Diaspora some of them painted in tri-colour trooped in, TOI bumped into an old woman wearing India blues and rushing towards stadium. “I stay at New Town in Kolkata and my son and daughter are here. I have been to Eden Gardens before but this one is different. We came here with a group of 17 people. Its truly picnic!” Shyamali Chakraborty’s ‘gang’ joined her by saying “we will win”.
They were all surely buoyed up by Captain Rohit Sharma’s claim that his side wants “to leave something” for these fans as well. In response to a question asked by a local radio jockey about his attitude towards the game during match eve, he said: “We understand how much the fans want us out there.”
Most have been desperately looking for India-Pakistan tickets but still couldn’t manage any yet. A young couple from Toronto walked in with their baby. “We really wanted tickets for the Indo-Pak game, but those are just not available. This was the second best option, so we flew in for this,” Twinkle said who hoped to see Virat Kohli show his masterly class with a bat.
Over about next one hour or so, it was the Indian bowlers that took it upon themselves to make them happy. As cricket truly celebrated its new shore, the band played and tricolour fluttered in the crisp morning breeze.