Sydney: Indian fans have flown in to Sydney from different parts of the world and almost all hotels are fully booked. The Indian restaurants have been quick in seeing an opportunity to make a quick buck.
As you approach the stadium, brochures of leading Indian restaurants are handed out to you. Some of the popular ones include Last Train to Bombay, Delhi O Delhi and Maya Da Dhaba. The Malabar restaurant from South India attracted a few Indian scribes to enjoy the ever popular ‘dosas’ they had missed out on in the last 40 days.
Food provided at this stadium can easily be said to be the best when compared to other centres. A special chef and his staff take care of food during matches. One has to pass through the kitchen to go to the venue of the press conference and the aroma of delicious food being prepared is enough to automatically raise everyone’s appetite. In fact, food at the stadium is so popular that newspapers have even carried features on some of the dishes they serve.
A point to note is that herbs added to spice up dishes at these restaurants are all grown in the organic garden in the stadium behind the Don Bradman stand.
Near the entrance to the Member’s Pavillion is a coffee tram painted in green, identical to the colour of the pavilion. This tram has been constructed from worn-out trams. The good thing is they serve great coffee which is extremely popular among fans. The same can be said about their Facebook page. At the bottom of their menu is the slogan “Get it while it’s hot”, which is bang on the money. T-shirts inscribed with this slogan are also very popular among women!
Besides food and coffee, cricket books are also a hot-selling item here. This is the time fans enjoy reading stories from previous World cups and their heroes and bookstores have made it a point to prominently display such books. Ricky Ponting’s autobiography At the Close of play and Michael Clarke’s Captain’s Diary about the 2013-14 Ashes series triumph are displayed prominently. Also selling fast are DVDs on Mitchell Johnson, titled Bouncing Back, which is an incredible comeback story and World Beaters, a DVD on Australia’s string of World Cup victories.
With the Indian skipper and team members not talking about the team or themselves, all news about India’s chances have only come in from the Australians until Tuesday. The manner in which the Cricket Australia lined up their cricketers for the media needs to be lauded. One week before the semi-final, they informed all media as to who would be the players available for interviews. The result was that Australian players were forced to answer more questions on the Indian team than their own players and team.
Soon after Australia’s Glenn Maxwell remarked that he wanted the Sydney pitch to be green, a volunteer referring to Pakistan’s team jersey remarked: “The only green that was left in the World Cup got beaten by the Australians in the quarter-final.”
At the Press box, there was a discussion on how One-Day cricket will no longer be the same after this World Cup with some of the finest cricketers like Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul Haq having retired from the game. The news of Chris Gayle not retiring despite his back problem was published here with a picture of him singing and dancing at a pub. “As long as he keeps dancing, it is unlikely that his back problem will have any cure,” remarked a scribe cheekily.