“Will the real Tendulkar stand up?” was the question one wanted to ask after sighting several fakes from the gate to the seat. The confusion for the scores that poured in early for the game was compounded as they encountered misleading direction indicators after surviving the trauma of the Marine Drive traffic jam. Directionless policemen or far-too-unfriendly private security personnel too didn’t help the cause. But once inside, there was enough to let one forget the ordeal outside.
First the Shiamak Davar troupe cheerleaders got the stands tapping, and when the just-to-be released Bollywood film Tashan starcast of Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, with son in tow, took the field, the crowd was on its feet. The fireworks in the background just added more glitz to the show, though the debris that found its way to the field delayed the start of the game by seven minutes.
Anil Kapoor helped the crowd clear their throats as he triggered Wankhede Stadium’s famous Ganpati Bapa Moria chant. There were no major adjustments to be made by the crowd, who suddenly found themselves a team that had several foreign and local non-Mumbaiites. The ‘India, India’ war cry was still relevant considering they were now supporting Mumbai Indians. And whenever they wanted to pep up an individual batsman, they chanted his name in the tone of the universally popular ‘Sachin, Sachin’ chant.
There was a bit of a dilemma in the crowd when local boy Zaheer Khan, in Bangalore Royal Challengers outfit, took the first wicket. Many jumped out of their seats watching Zaheer get the wicket, but they soon realized that he wasn’t in the right colours.
Sanath Jayasuriya was in the right colours and that meant his five fours and one six brought the Wankhede roof down with cheerleaders going into a frenzy. The man whose big hits usually draw pin-drop silence in India was getting the first feel of a full house crescendo. Regardless of the result, Mumbai received the IPL with open arms and exhausted lungs. Just imagine the scene if the Real Tendulkar had stood up!