Here is what our informants saw and heard during the Ranji Trophy match between Karnataka and Baroda at the Gangothri Glades.
Scene 1
The stands filled with school children, Mysore University students and old retirees, watching the game intently. Good stuff.
Scene 2
KSCA invitees stand begins to fill up around 11:30, half-hour before lunch. Young and old, men and women, arrive in time for lunch. Even before the Umpires call ‘lunch’, the invitees rush towards the lunch counter, set this time in the stands and right next to the press box. The unseemly rush of three hundred or more people is short of a food fight and quite a sight. By 1:30 the sated invitees will have left, for a well-earned siesta at home. We thought of inserting a nice Youtube video. Embarrassing.
Scene 3
Overheard a PYT telling her friend, as they exited the KSCA invitee area at the end of the first day’s play: My bums are hurting. Hilarious.
Scene 3
The deafening silence of Karnataka players, who often complain about not having a proper balcony at the Gangothri Glades that keeps them away from the hoi polloi. They dare not complain to the new secretary Javagal Srinath, who might impersonate a drill instructor and make them run ten rounds around Glades. Funny.
Scene 4
Good to see Karnataka players, especially the likes of Abhimanyu Mithun and Manish Pandey, signing autographs and posing for photos with kids. In fact, more of such interactions with the spectators would be in order, especially after practice sessions. Nice.
Scene 5
Occasional teasing of Stuart Binny and Robin Uttappa, the two exciting Karnataka players who haven’t performed in Mysore.
Among the Baroda players, Ambatti Rayadu gets some shouts, thanks to his IPL stints with Mumbai Indians. Cheeky.
Scene 6
Lush green outfield at Gangothri Glades, as the one blot from last year has been set right. It’s just a fabulous sight, in one what’s one of the prettiest cricket grounds anywhere in the world. Pretty.
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