England playing away8217; at home!

EDGBASTON, MAY 29: The rains were a veritable spoilsport for the hordes of Indians here in England. The mood, these past few days, was de...

EDGBASTON, MAY 29: The rains were a veritable spoilsport for the hordes of Indians here in England. The mood, these past few days, was decidedly upbeat after India8217;s victories in the last two games had raised expectations of the Indians community here to fever pitch.

It was not just the Indians, but even the Pakistanis during the match at Derby who hoped that India would pull through to the semifinals. While a few louts shouted anti-Indian slogans at the Derby ground on Friday, a whole lot of Pakistanis hoped India would be able to give the English a thrashing of course they used far more colourful language to express this.

Perhaps the fact that Mohammed Azharuddin and S Venkataraghavan had played as professionals for Derbyshire is what led the Pakistanis to state thus.

Alternately their hatred for the English might have been so strong that they were hoping that the hosts could be thrown out of their own tournament!The motorways from London to Birmingham this morning were packed with Indians drivingto the Edgbaston grounds. Ravi Shastri, who offered to take a couple of us in his car from London, was momentarily unsure of the route as an Audi ambassador, he is entitled to an Audi anywhere in the world. But on second thoughts, he decided to simply follow the stream of cars which were hurtling on the motorway sporting Indian tri-colour flags.

The ground, a pleasant change from the dingy stadia in which India have played thus far, was packed to capacity, mostly with Indians. They came in India colours and donned India caps according to statistics made available, the highest sports sales on the Internet is said to be the 14.25 pounds India cap! Besides, in England alone, Indian team colours T-shirts have outsold England8217;s by a stunning 3:1. The English are simply flabbergasted by these figures.

The fans, with drums, cymbals, conches, blow horns and a plethora of instruments considerably raised the decibel level with a cacophony that electrified the atmosphere from the first ball. In these settings,the Indian team felt decidedly at home!

A few of us journalists soaked in the atmosphere a little while in the morning sitting in the open stands with the Indian supporters. Their air horns not to speak of all the other instruments were simply deafening. We could not even hear each other shout, let alone speak. Liquor, openly sold below the stands, parched the screaming throats the authorities banned the carrying of liquor into the stadium this morning and every bag was checked.

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But this, it dawned later, was only to boost their own sales!. The spectators were, of course, blissfully unaware of any calculations or equations. They had come solely to see their team kick England in the backside. And they were making the maximum racket to ensure the Indian team received plenty of support and encouragement. A few overs of this was more than we could take and we beat it to the comfort of the press box.The spectators, however, continued in the same vein throughout the day till rain chased the players away andemptied the arena.

The Indian flag, sold at five and 10 pounds here, were used by the spectators as protection from the cold and rain. It was only after the ground became flooded the fans moved away. They might have been denied the opportunity of seeing India thrash England today. But they sure have been heard all over England in the stands, in the shops, in the motorways and not the least, in the liquor vending joints! Cheers!