July 16, 2002

India score a double at Lord's

- Jonathan Dyson

There were two Indian victories at Lord's on Saturday. On the pitch, a young and exciting side clinched what seemed an impossible win to finally end the barren run of nine consecutive defeats in one-day finals that has hung over the side like a dark cloud. In the stands, meanwhile, the Indian fans created a vibrant atmosphere that made a mockery of all the school-masterly wishes that lie behind the MCC's petty ground regulations.

It was by all accounts as good an atmosphere as could have been hoped, in a tournament ignited as much by the exuberant supporters as the dashing stroke-play and outstanding fielding. As Peter Roebuck wrote in The Sunday Times: "Not even the grim ordinances of officialdom could spoil the day. Horns had been banned from this po-faced arena, but bugles blew as batsmen charged towards the guns."

As with the previous game at Lord's, the Compton and Edrich stands were packed full of Indian supporters, and in the rest of the ground there seemed to be even more fans than there were last time. England fans also caught the mood, inter-mingling happily with Indian supporters, and in a few cases proudly waving the flag of St George, which has curiously re-emerged this summer as a popular national symbol, manifested chiefly during the Queen's Jubilee celebrations and England's progress in the football World Cup.

As ever, there was an enormous variety of ways in which the Indian fans were expressing their enjoyment. There was the instinctive, uncontrollable act of simply jumping up and down whenever a spectacular moment occurred on the pitch, the arm-waving en masse that signaled a boundary, the enthusiastic waving of the '4' and '6' banners handed out at each game, and the beating of the inflatable NatWest stumps that make a surprisingly resonant sound. Even more thrilling was the volume of flag-waving, horn- blowing, cheering, chanting, and beating of drums. Even smoke bombs were unleashed at one point. Thomas Lord was presumably turning violently in his grave.

Given the prohibitive ground regulations, it all amounted to the fans' equivalent of -- well, of recovering from 146 for five with a daunting target of 326 in the distance. Whether the number of flags, banners and musical instruments sneaked inside was due to an understandable sympathy on the part of the stewards towards the supporters, or of a lack of thoroughness in their checks outside the ground is unclear.

After the game, the fans' celebrations were matched by the players. Resembling Flintoff after he cleaned up India in Mumbai, Ganguly tore off his shirt on the players' balcony and started waving it violently round his head. He then quickly put his shirt back on, ran on to the outfield, and flattened Kaif with a jubilant hug. Soon the entire Indian team were on the pitch completing a deserved lap of honour. Ganguly searched the crowd for a flag of his own.

During these scenes, a large group of Indian fans were waving a huge flag, and nobody was bothering them. It does make you wonder if the MCC are actually coming round to the idea of relaxing their policies on crowd enjoyment. You would certainly hope so. After my criticism of their regulations after the previous Lord's one-dayer, I received several e-mails suggesting that I had actually understated their control-freakery.

One fan reported that during the first game at Lord's, stewards in the Tavern Stand were walking round, requesting that people turn off their mobile phones. The fan described it as "like being in a theatre. One guy sitting below me was trying to close his spread betting account and apparently lost money because he wasn't able to. He wasn't a happy chap."

On Saturday, it emerged on Test Match Special that the request of their roving reporter Eleanor Oldroyd to conduct interviews with some of the players after the match, as she had done throughout the series, was refused by the ground authorities.

Meanwhile, certain clothing restrictions now cover parts of the ground other than the pavilion, which has always accepted only those dressed in shirt and tie. Now, those sitting in the members' friends' enclosure are requested on their ticket to wear "smart clothing . a list of unsuitable clothing is available on request."

The sheer scale of the regulations currently in place at Lord's now amounts to nothing less than an Orwellian nightmare. As a spectator, the expression of natural emotions is actively discouraged; your movements and ability to create noise are restricted; you are not allowed to contact anyone outside the ground; entry to certain areas of the stadium means adherence to a dress code. It is surely time for the MCC to wake up and realise just how unpopular they are making themselves. As one fan noted after the first game at Lord's, "Many fans said to me it was the last time they would go there to watch cricket, as their enjoyment was curtailed 'just to keep a few old member farts happy'."

On Thursday, once again, most of the 10,000 crowd at Bristol were Indian fans and clearly enjoyed themselves. After the game, Mark Nicholas interviewed Tendulkar about the progress of the team, his own form and the prospects for the rest of the summer, when the noise of the crowd close to where they were talking moved Nicholas to comment: "And I bet you're quite excited too about playing at home. It's staggering, the support you've had." Sachin chuckled, and replied: 'Yes, it's the second home because we've got tremendous support here. I really want to thank all the people for turning up and supporting us. We hope they do that at Lord's.' Well, they certainly did, and, more than that, they showed Lord's a thing or two about what cricket really is.

Also read:
- India rule on and off the pitch
- India's 'home' support

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Illustration: Bijoy Venugopal