[1]Watching the KKR vs RCB match in the Yacht Club with a whole lot of my friends made me really nostalgic and suddenly I wished Kochi Tuskers still existed.
We all have our own favourite teams, then why am I wishing and hoping?
The IPL has a world culture and thus having our own team made us part of this.
It was such fun last year with matches being played in our city. And I think more than just matches it was the ability to be able to see your stars in front of you.
People from all over Kerala would travel to see the matches. A million fingers would be crossed when we would see black clouds looming over the international stadium.
The silence when the wickets fell and the madness when there was a four or a six. It was fantastic to see it all happen before our own eyes and not just on TV.
It was also great to be able to tell a metro guy that even we have matches being played in our city when they talked about their experiences.
I remember so clearly how Kochi had become a sea of purple and orange. All the paraphernalia and merchandise.
T-shirts, caps, signed bats, banners and more. People selling all this around the stadium. The traffic, the buzz, the tension. The IPL had Kochi swooning.
And there would be those messages and calls; hey are you in the stadium? What’s happening there? Which block are you sitting in? I truly miss us having an IPL team.
When we thought the IPL couldn’t get crazier — it did and KKR was playing. And suddenly the stadium erupted when the magnetic charismatic amazing Shah Rukh Khan walked in.
He waved, he blew kisses, he clapped and from where he was, he indulged every fan.
His team lost (mine too) but he was the winner. He walked around waving to everyone. Touching hands and smiling.
I love the IPL and I know many do too in this cricket crazy Kerala. And I miss miss miss watching the matches live and also having our own team.
The writer is a prominent figure on Kochi’s social scene
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[1] http://103.241.136.51/col-30jpgcropdisplayjpg-345