Leaving a lovely Hobart and iconic cheerleaders

Sydney: Hobart was simply lovely! I simply did not want to leave from there. Despite the hectic schedule and not being able to see any of the beautiful places on this island, just being there, feeling so close to the nature was very refreshing.

Both the matches played here were one-sided; yet witnessing Kumar Sangakkara’s historic feat of four centuries in a row and Mitchell Starc’s deadly bowling was extremely gratifying. The fact that they both are the leading performers in their respective areas in this tournament made it even more special.

After Scotland skipper Preston Mommsen remarked that the match against the formidable Australians was an eye opener, a scribe remarked: “Scotland’s innings was a ‘Starc’ reality of their standard.” Another said: “If Sangakkara taught them the art of batting, Starc demonstrated to them the art of pace bowling.”

Apart from seeing these two great cricketeters in action, I was also fortunate to see one of the finest cruise ships ‘Voyager of the Seas’ docked in the harbour here. This ship was the talk of the town for the last few days. It is one of the largest ships ever built, and can handle 3114 guests, has 15 decks, 10 pools and whirlpools, a mini golf course, basketball court and an ice-skating rink, reminding me of the ever famous Titanic. Hobart is a popular port of call for cruise ships and close to 75,000 holiday makers came by cruise ships in the 2012-2013 season.

It was a pleasure to see local newspapers here giving extensive coverage to domestic matches, and some of the feats were remarkable. Amidst all the World Cup reports and clamour for space, they considered it important to feature a young boy Riley Meredith who took a double hat-trick during his spell of 7 for 20. A local volunteer remarked that in December last year, Adam Bourke of Exeter club had achieved the incredible feat of a triple hat-trick. One of the dailies also carried a picture of two fathers and their sons umpiring in a local league on the same day.

I reached Sydney almost at the same time from when I took off from Hobart, and that was a relief given that there are huge time differences between cities in Australia. Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had expressed his frustration over this after the match, saying: “Many of us had problems adjusting with the change of time and it affected our sleeping pattern a lot.”

Incidentally, all the Indian journalists rooted for New Zealand to beat Bangladesh, not because of their love for the Blackcaps team but to save money. Almost all of them had booked flights from Auckland to Melbourne, fully confident that New Zealand will beat Bangladesh. Had Bangladesh won, India would have been playing their quarter-final in Sydney.

For fans following the Indian team too, this was a big relief. Mohammad Bashir, the 64-year-old Chicago based Dhoni fan, is a heart patient and has had three heart attacks before but he is still following the team. Sri Lanka’s famous cheerleader Percy Abeysekera is 78 years old and is also here cheering for his team, as he has been for the last 50 years.

With Sachin Tendulkar fan Sudhir Kumar Gautam being the youngest at 35 among the famous cheerleaders, it’s time a new generation of cheerleaders emerged from the cricketing nations.