Having played cricket since I was five years old, it was a dream come true for me to go to the World Cup Cricket in the Caribbean. It was so much fun that the three weeks we spent there felt like no more than five minutes. This was a gift for my son Samar’s 18th birthday celebration. Even though he is born and brought up in the US, he speaks Assamese fluently and has taken a lot of interest in cricket and represents the Southern California Cricket Youth Team.
We went to three different islands, Grenada, St. Lucia and Barbados watching 7 games in all, including one semi-final and the final. We were fortunate to be able to watch the last game of the famous batsman Brian Lara of West Indies, who holds the record for most runs in a test match innings of 400 not out and the highest total in first class cricket of 500 runs. We also had a chance to meet Lara, Ricky Ponting, Gil Christ, Nathan Bracken, Alim Dhar, and Sangakara in person. The famous umpire Darryl Harper sat next to us in one of the games. Samar and I had so much fun and celebration with non-stop dancing that we were featured on the big screen and the television many times. The South African cameraman PJ Hoffman became our friend and was text messaging to us non-stop in the semi final where South Africa faced Australia.
Going into the tournament, the defending champion Australia was favorite to win. However, during the few months prior to the world cup, South Africa had dislodged Australia from the Number One position. India beat Sri Lanka in the one-day series with 4 wins out of 5 at home. The host West Indies played some good cricket going into the tournament. So there was a lot of apprehension on the outcome of the games. As the tournament started, West Indies beat Pakistan in the opening game.
Next came the biggest upset of tournament, India losing to Bangladesh, which eventually led to India not making into the second round of the tournament. Soon Pakistan followed the same fate losing to Ireland, another upset of the tournament. After some exciting games in the second round amongst top 8 teams, England, West Indies, Bangladesh and Ireland had to bow out from the Super 8. In the semi finals, Australia beat South Africa and Sri Lanka beat New Zealand. The final was history in the making. In spite of bad weather, the spirit in both camps was high. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first and put together a mammoth total. Sri Lankans chased quite well. But at the end the Australian prevailed aided by bad light and light drizzle. Australia has a set a record of 3 World Cup victories in a row, with Ricky Ponting being the only captain to win the world cup back to back. Gilchrist won the man of the match with 149 runs and Glen McGrath of Australia winning the man of the tournament.
We had so much fun that now I am planning to go for the whole two months to the next World cup in 2011 in India.
Contributed by Dhruba Kalita, Torrance, California
- Log in to post comments