The historical weekend that ended as a damp squib

August 27 and 28th were marked as important dates on the smartphones by cricket fans in the United States of America. Team India was officially going to step on the American soil for the first time.

The excitement was palpable as they were set to become a part of history. Most of the Indians there must have spent their time changing sides on their bed like an insomniac waiting for the hours to pass a night before the start of the series. As expected, just like any other venue where Team India has played in the past, people thronged the stadiums wearing the blue jersey from their favorite era.

Any American passing by would have felt for a moment – “what is happening over here?” – after watching people shouting India! India! with the tri-color in their hand outside. It was perhaps the only occasion in many years when Indians themselves would have seen people of their origin in such big numbers at one place. Except of course the Maddison Square. One can definitely vouch for the fact that if there was not an American Flag set on the gates of the stadium then it would have been very difficult to say whether the game was actually played in the USA or at any other venue in the sub-continent.

Most of these people, speaking Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, had left their country of birth for work and made up for the loss of cricketing action watching baseball and American Football. They were starved. These people who came along with their kids speaking with an American accent were the same who grew up in households where elders took off work to watch the matches in the 80 and 90’s. Therefore when the opportunity to watch the charismatic MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli live in action arrived they could not stop themselves. It was chaos!

The match finally began and it began with fireworks. The hyper-aggressive West Indies batsmen went berserk and there were sixes flying everywhere. The Indian bowlers were beaten black and blue. 246 runs were scored in the first half of the game. But, the run galore was not over yet.

Indian batsmen came back all guns blazing and the match was brought to the last over where MS Dhoni stood at the crease with his team requiring just 2 runs off the last ball. Unfortunately, Bravo outsmarted Dhoni dismissing him off the decisive ball to help West Indies escape with a narrow 1 run win. The game took T20 cricket to a different level. But, the loss didn’t leave the Indian fans dejected. They were treated with best of T20 cricket.

The second game, however, was a huge disappointment. It was another beautiful sunny day. Fans were again waiting the most annoying part of this whole scenario was that the fans didn’t even get a proper public announcement explaining the delayed start outside the venue but suddenly an unavoidable technical snag arose and ate up 40 minutes of the play.

Once the game began, the West Indies didn’t look like the same team they were a night ago and their complacent nature was on display. The Indian bowlers, who were left licking their wounds, made an amazing comeback. 143 runs were all they managed in 19.4 overs. Two overs into the chase, rain began to pour. It didn’t shower for long, 20 minutes approximately.

The game should have resumed but it didn’t. The water had not been drained and the outfield had not dried. The playing area looked fit to play according to umpires but the other parts were unsuitable. The umpire did two inspections and finally concluded that no play could be possible.

The match was abandoned and West Indies won the series 1-0. While the post-match shows and the presenters termed the “rain gods” and “weather” as the villains of the day, it was perhaps the drainage and equipment system at the stadium that was to be blamed at the venue which was a wonderful place otherwise.

A historic weekend was soured by the rains, technical snags and improper attention towards important aspects. They had paid steep amounts for the game. Had it been somewhere else in Asia, officials would have probably been sweeping egg shells off the stands. But, the fans here didn’t mind.

But, life will get back to normal for them after two days of cricket. They will get busy living their lives, hustling through the busy lanes every morning with smoothies in their hands and wait for the weekends to arrive so that they could grab beers and enjoys the sunset at the Miami Beach.

But, say whatever, the upcoming weekends, in any sense, won’t carry the same amount of excitement for the cricket lovers in Uncle’ Sam’s land that the last couple of nights had. They will be now waiting until BCCI arranges another exercise to take the game into the ‘new market’.