Crowd hoping for thrilling cricket at first India-West Indies T20I

It brought back memories of the days when you'd turn up two hours early at Sabina Park in Kingston for a Test match, only to be greeted by horrendously long lines and no certainty of gaining admission. That is how it looked approaching the Central Broward Regional Stadium for the first of two Twenty20 Internationals between the West Indies and India. It was 8.00 AM. The match was scheduled for 10. And already it seemed there were enough patrons there to fill the venue.


It was somewhat surprising to see that so many turned up so early. As I went walking in a nearby town on the previous evening, not many people, it seemed, were aware there was to be a huge cricket game next day.
Of the over two dozen people I spoke to, none had heard of the game. One Jamaican I met was surprised when he heard of it, and immediately called his friend who he said were avid fans, especially of T20 cricket.

Come to think of it, I really ought not to have been surprised. This was T20 cricket after all. The stands of this same ground were almost filled to capacity when six Caribbean Premier League games were held here a few weeks ago. And 20,000 capacity ground should be easily filled in a potential market of millions of cricket starved, fairly well-off clients.

Entry to the press area, which was really a partitioned area of the Grand Stand shared with some young children, brought home the realisation it was going to be a very hot day. The press was accommodated indoors, in much more hospitable circumstances. It turns out that where the media was placed for the CPL was now a VIP area. A number of the media members were not pleased.

But those who turned up early were not aware or concerned about that. They were here to have a good time and so the merriment was underway long before a ball was bowled. Every player, especially Indian player that came into view was greeted by loud cheers even as the crowd did the appropriate moves to DJ Bravo's song, Champion.