South Mumbai came to standstill as masses gathered along Marine drive to cheer the Indian cricket team for their T20 World Cup victory parade.
If by any means you are in doubt about how famous is cricket in India, go through this article. The Indian T20 World Cup champions did a victory parade in the streets of South Mumbai on Thursday night, a sight that will be remembered. The fans draped themselves in blue and held the tricolor. Thus, they turned Marine Drive, one of the familiar landmarks, into a joyful meeting place where they paid tribute to their men of the hour, making the city almost impassable with traffic jams and gridlocks.
Image Credit: https://www.thehindu.com/
The inauguration parade, which was supposed to begin at 5:00 p.m., was postponed by more than two hours because the Indian team’s flight from New Delhi was delayed.
The Indian cricket team was earlier in the morning at the PM’s official residence in Delhi for a grand breakfast gathering with the PM Narendra Modi, and they were taking a flight to Mumbai to land at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in the evening. It was nearly 7:30 p.m. when they arrived at Nariman Point.
The open-top bus journey from the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) to Wankhede Stadium, a route that usually takes just five minutes, was transformed into an hour-and-a-half trip due to the crowd of fans who came out to honor the Indian cricket team victory showcasing how famous is cricket in India. As the bus slowly moved through the crowd, the players could be seen being overly affected by the endless demonstration of love and affection.
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The moment was particularly poignant for Rohit Sharma, the team’s captain. Seventeen years earlier, Rohit Sharma was the youngest member of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 2007 T20 World Cup-winning squad. At the age of 37, he was the leader of a new generation of cricketers and had another historic victory. Hearing the chants of “Mumbaicha Raja, Rohit Sharma,” it was very evident to me that he was the king of Mumbai.
While the bus was tripping along Marine Drive, the players were just getting happy with the oohs and aahs. Because the same people who were smiling and cheering him on are now the ones who have put him in their community, Hardik Pandya was all over the place despite being criticized during the IPL.
Joining the fans, who had a remarkable T20 World Cup quest, he finally grabbed a trophy and showed it to the crowd. With cheers from the public, his transformation from being involved in a dispute to being reconciled was realized, as he was lauded by the people who had come to cheer him and his teammates on.
The sight at Marine Drive resembled a moving picture. Supporters, among them those who had come across the city and those from other parts of the country, even with an occasional shower, smiled to take a picture of their idols.
The crowd went wild with excitement after catching a quick glimpse of Virat Kohli, many of which had traveled from other parts of the town to see him. As people say, Kohli is so lively that he didn’t omit involving some of his colleagues, such as Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Axar Patel, in a sudden dance. They jumped to the beats of Nashik dhols, who provided them with Wankhede Stadium as soon as they arrived.
In spite of the situation where the atmosphere was tense and prone to getting agitated, the place was so lively.
Churchgate and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus packed some trains with fans so much that the traffic towards Marine Drive was completely stopped by 4:45 p.m. as the city’s roads were full of people, and they became impassable. Most of the drivers said that they were in traffic for very many hours, and some road trips took ten times their usual duration.
The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) was compelled to suspend buses that were stuck in the gridlock as the buses were stuck in the gridlock. Ten bus routes were greatly affected, which added to the roads’ confusion. However, amidst the delays and traffic jams, the fans were still determined to be there, the historic one.
It was explosive in the Wankhede Stadium. Within a few minutes of the gates opening, the stadium, which had seen India’s last ODI World Cup victory in 2011, was overflowing. Fans who couldn’t get into the stadium were also having fun outside, making the entire place even more festive.
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The DJ had the crowd jumping on their feet with his mixed bag of music, and all of a sudden, the stadium changed into one massive rain dance, with the speakers going full blast, blaring hits like “To Brazil” and the evergreen “Chak de India.”
When the players got to the stadium, the crowd shouted “Sachin… Sachin Tendulkar” and “India… India” as a sign of respect for the team’s great success and the illustrious history of Indian cricket. The victory parade was a fitting end to a memorable win, one that will be recorded in the annals of crickets fans’ history in the country for many years to come.
The celebration of the 20-20 Indian cricket team on which India team brought the trophy after a fifteen-year wait led to traffic congestion in South Mumbai. The city, which adores cricket the most, proved through the medium of this parade that it is the head of Indian cricket. Furthermore, the parade through the jubilant streets was nothing but organized chaos, swallowing and revealing the cricket supporters’ flood of emotion and the joy the cricket fans derive from it.
References:
https://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/maximum-city-maximum-love-mumbai-halts-to-salute-team-indias-victory-parade/article68368321.ece
https://apnews.com/article/india-cricket-t20-world-cup-a1ce84d4cbbabab08bdf9b109a8c0ab4
https://www.ndtvprofit.com/sports/mumbai-traffic-jams-as-indian-cricket-teams-victory-parade-draws
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/icc-mens-t20-world-cup/maximum-city-maximum-love-mumbai-halts-to-salute-team-indias-victory-parade/articleshow/111494923.cms
