Where sports is a religion...

The year 1993. India was playing England at the Eden Gardens and needed just 34 runs to win on the last day. In every other cricket stadium in the world there’d be more cops than spectators when such a thing happens. Not in Kolkata. Eden Gardens was 70,000 full when the match started on Day 5. The passion was infectious, the vibrancy unbelievable and the enthusiasm unmatched.That’s Kolkata and sport. We will witness this yet again come April 2 when PitBull and Shahrukh Khan perform to a packed Yuva Bharati Krirangan.
Having watched sport across the world, I am proud to state that Kolkata lags behind no other city when it comes to its passion for sport. Interestingly, we also tend to love those who aren’t one of our own in many cases. When Pele made a visit to the city in 1977 he was stunned the see the thousands at the airport to welcome him. For Maradona we went a step further with people lining up with mashals all along the VIP road making it a rather surreal night. More importantly, for local football games there is still a sizeable constituency of Kolkatans who make it to the stadium braving the weather.
Growing up as a child I was certainly one of them. The Salt Lake Stadium had just been set up and anyone who has watched games in the stadium in the mid 1980s will tell you that getting there was a nightmare. There was hardly any public transport and one had to get off at Phoolbagan and walk on many occasions. On special occasions like the Kolkata derby the trip was far more interesting. I remember one such when 14 of us had piled onto one auto from Kankurgachi. Seven of us had squeezed ourselves in while the others were holding on to the side rails for dear life. Half way into the ride, the auto, unable to bear the torment, overturned. And needless to say all of us lay sprawled on top of each other! Not one person abused or lost his cool though. “Arre uthe por, uthe por, soja kore de ar chal. Deri hoye jachhe.” That’s all that was said. We got the auto back to its feet and made our way to the ground. In no Manchester derby involving City and United or an El Classico involving Barca and Real Madrid can such a thing ever happen. It is simply inconceivable in the West. Also inconceivable is what happened last year at midnight when KKR won its maiden IPL title.
I was getting ready to do my television show for Times Now from Park Street to get a taste of the flavour of the win when the last runs were scored. Even before I could start saying that Kolkata will now come out in celebration, there were a thousand plus people on the road on motorbikes and cars waving, blowing conches and throwing kisses. Nothing similar had happened in Chennai the year before or in Hyderabad when the Chargers won the IPL in season two. The celebrations in Kolkata, which lasted for days and culminated in the grand show addressed by the Chief Minister at the Eden Gardens, was unique. While some might call it needless fanaticism, others will take pride in this sporting culture, which is unparalleled.
When Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were dropped from the Indian team against Australia, not a single soul in Delhi had come out in protest. And not a single placard went up at the Kotla demanding their reinstatement in the team during the recently concluded test match. When Saurav was dropped at Greg Chappell’s instigation in 2005, Kolkata had come out in large numbers in protest. Our politicians even raised the issue in Parliament if I am not mistaken. We barracked Chappell and Dravid at the Eden Gardens when India played South Africa in November 2005 and celebrated when Graeme Smith’s men thrashed the Indian team sans Saurav.
Analysts may label these actions hyper jingoistic and parochial but there’s no way one can ignore the sporting passion on show in the city. It is a flavour which has been with us since the early twentieth century when 5000 people gathered at the maidan to catch a glimpse of Ranjitsinhji as he played a local match in 1899. It peaked during the 1960s when 6 Kolkatans lost their lives in a stampede for tickets at the Eden Gardens in 1969. And we will forever remember the martyrs who lost their lives on 16 August 1980. None of these tragedies have diminished our craze for sport as will be seen at the Eden Gardens when KKR take on Delhi on 3 April. The city just loves its sport and we all love it for doing so.
(The writer is a journalist and author)