Ahmedabad dresses up for the grand Cricket-ratri festival
Bashir Chacha, still hoping to get a ticket for the India vs Pakistan game, could be the only Pakistan fan in the stands
Yash Jha13-Oct-20235:40
‘Once the first ball is bowled, everything is back to normal’
Thursday, 5pm IST. Hundreds of locals have gathered under the Ashram Road flyover in Usmanpura, Ahmedabad. They are there to catch a glimpse of the Pakistan team as they head for training. There’s still 30 minutes to go before the bus leaves the hotel, but two days out from contest of the World Cup, anticipation is heightening and security cover is already at the level you’d see on most match days for other games.But this is a game like no other. India versus Pakistan. In India for the first time in seven years. In front of what could be a record crowd of more than 100,000 people. They played in front of 90,000 at the MCG in last year’s T20 World Cup. Expect this to be louder and far more partisan than anything these Pakistan players would have come up against in their careers.Before the Pakistan team bus leaves the hotel, out walks Mohammad Bashir, known more famously as Bashir . He was a crowd favourite in Hyderabad during Pakistan’s first two World Cup games, and now Ahmedabad locals get their first sighting of him. He could possibly be the only Pakistani fan at the game on Saturday. How’s that for a daunting position to be in?Related
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“,” Bashir asks of the crowd, having scanned the scene for a minute. “India ,” is the instant response, loud in volume but not visceral in tone. The mood is good natured enough for Bashir to counter with a shout of “Pakistan “. The locals gather around him for selfies and the media can’t get enough of the man who moved from Karachi to Chicago four decades ago.Bashir’s attire on the day – a combined Pakistan and India outfit – is in keeping with his life story: his wife is an Indian from Hyderabad and he’s got used to being sledged by her. Remember, India have a proud 7-0 record against Pakistan in ODI World Cups. ” (She told me I’m going to be embarrassed again [by Pakistan losing], I said it doesn’t matter, I have to be there [in Ahmedabad]).”As of Thursday, he didn’t have a ticket to the game yet, but he’s optimistic. In 2011, ahead of the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan in Mohali, his plea for tickets was fulfilled by MS Dhoni. He says Dhoni and Rohit Sharma have arranged tickets for him on many occasions.
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World Cup (We’ll take the World Cup away),” Bashir sings to the tune of the Bollywood song as he walks towards the hotel. Everyone around, including the police, has a laugh.But for the officials involved in organising Saturday’s showpiece – and there are many – this is serious business. There is immense security wherever you go: outside team hotels, at the city’s major junctions, and it peaks as you approach the massive stadium.Motera Stadium metro station gives direct access to the entrance of the venue, with gate Nos. 1 and 2 allotted to pedestrians on match days. There are police lined up at these gates. Venture inside and you see police in the hundreds, and that number will swell further as we get closer to the game. Around 5500 police officials, along with 600 private security officials, will be on duty to secure the stadium when the fans walk in through the gates on Saturday.There will be six semi-ICU ambulances deployed in addition to six medical kiosks, and there are two hospitals set up at the stadium: one with six beds, one with two. Thirty-five parking lots have been created outside the venue for the public while there’s space for 600 to 700 cars inside the stadium.Mohammad Bashir with MS Dhoni, who arranged tickets for him for the India-Pakistan match at the 2011 World Cup•Mohammad BashirFor people walking in, golf carts will be available to help the elderly and the differently abled – and thank goodness for that, for it is a seriously long walk from the gates to the seats. There will be more than 120 food stalls inside, and free mineral water supplied through the facility’s 48 RO plants.Taking in those numbers, and the scale of logistics, you wonder if you’re here for a city-wide festival. And indeed you are, for this weekend also marks the start of Navratri, which is massive in Ahmedabad (and much of northern India). Massive enough for the date of this more-than-a-game game to have been changed from October 15 to October 14.India arrived in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon and Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathour, their head coach and batting coach respectively, went straight to the venue for a first look at the conditions. ESPNcricinfo has learned that a black-soil pitch has been chosen for the fixture, which might mean less pace for the fast men. There was no training for the Indian team on Thursday, with only Shubman Gill having a half-hour net session as he recovers from a bout of dengue. The Pakistan team had arrived in the city about 24 hours earlier and were walled-in by security during training.The doors will be thrown open on Saturday to what could be the largest crowd ever at a game of cricket. And because of how hard it has been for Pakistani fans to get tickets and visas to travel to India, there could be just a single speck of green among the strong ocean of raucous blue.