Mumbai: Once again, I was at the airport with the victorious Indian team in Chandigarh. But unlike the flight from Nagpur to Kolkata, this time the team was flying in a chartered flight to Mumbai. However, all players had to go through security checks and that brought all activities at the airport to a standstill.
When Virat Kohli walked out of the team bus with team director Ravi Shastri, the whole airport reverberated with the passengers shouting out his name. All passengers were asked to wait till the Indian team completed their security checks.
Everyone wanted to take Kohli’s photos and he obliged them before walking away towards a special screening area. The chartered flight was meant for the teams only; the West Indies women’s team were also flying to Mumbai for their semi-finals. A little later, the Australian team led by Steven Smith too arrived and their chartered flight was to Delhi for them to take the Emirates flight back to Australia.
Many ICC officials were also at the airport, including Chief Executive David Richardson, and many of them were flying to New Delhi for the first semi-final.
Since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, there has not been such a public frenzy about in India about a cricketer. Now people close to Kohli are much sought after with just about everyone wanting to know more about the star. Those who played with Kohli in the Under-19 team consider his transformation spectacular. He was a bit chubby those days, they recall, but, since making his debut in the Indian Premier League, he has worked hard on his fitness. The man of the moment is very particular about his diet - he prefers grilled sea food and chicken and stays away as much as possible from sweets and junk food. One of his close friends revealed that Kohli is obsessed with cleanliness and likes to have all his clothes neatly folded and tucked away in his room.
As usual, the mad scramble for match tickets has reached fever pitch in Mumbai. Even though no extra tickets are being sold, people were still seen hovering around the ticket counter next to the stadium. The Mumbai Hockey Association (MHA) has always got on well with the Mumbai Cricket Association. MHA’s astro turf ground is next to the Wankhede stadium and, like good neighbours, they coordinate with each other during big events.
A journalist who approached a top MCA official to buy a few tickets was told that he would be glad if the former managed to get a few tickets and that he (the official) would buy them from him!
The Wankhede stadium has a capacity of just 32,000 with its stands named after the three cricketing greats from Mumbai – Vijay Merchant, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
