Siddharth Monga
I always tell them to drop it into the urinal. Alternatively, if you are driving during a domestic game and parking is available, turn left at the urinal. I don’t think there is any cricket ground in the world other than Feroz Shah Kotla that is identified by urinals. There is no gate on the main road as it is a little off Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. Because the road is covered with trees, it is easy to miss the floodlights that mark the cricket field from the ground, as well as the narrow left-hand lights that enter.
So please pass by the urinal. they’re right there. It is located in the middle of the walkway entered from Gates 1-6. Since I don’t live in Delhi now, I exited from Gate 5 of the Delhi Gate metro station, turned left, passed the petrol pump, and went to the Ambedkar Stadium entrance and part of the Kotla entrance gate. Cruche Chole When you go to the cart, there’s a urinal right there to remind you where to go left. The small dusty field where the Delhi Police has set up a scanning tent is just behind the urinals. The entrance to that field is easy to miss, but so is the smelly urinal.
Except this time it doesn’t stink. I’m here to report that perhaps because of this World Cup and the emphasis on fan-friendliness in Indian stadiums, those urinals are covered and locked. I’m saying that. In fact, the entire stadium is in top condition. The Gautam Gambhir Stand looks like a multi-storey car park, but it doesn’t look as ugly as usual, as the outside wall has a rather fun ICC sign rather than an advertisement for chewing tobacco. I was told that the women’s restroom was clean and well stocked, at least on the first day. Even the Delhi Police are quite polite.
Much more needs to be done for Kotla to be recognized as one of the world’s great stadiums, but perhaps I am speaking from a privileged position with access to press facilities. I don’t actually care about Kotla. Probably because what you see, warts and all, is what you get. There is no green cloth to hide the poor and poverty.
Kotla is a flawed stadium bang in the middle of a flawed but charming city, just on the edge of Old Delhi and New Delhi. Kotora also has some attractive aspects. For example, an exterior wall made of natural stone instead of brick. To the south are the remains of the actual Kotla, a fort built by then emperor Feroz Shah Tughlaq to protect his capital.
The actual Kotla is a picnic spot during the day for an entrance fee of 25 rupees, and a place for young lovers to meet in seclusion during the hot summer months. It is believed that at night it is possessed by a jinn (loosely speaking, a demon). People still write their wishes on the walls and hope that Jin will see them and make them come true.
This is not the only myth about this. The actual stadium of Kotla is said to be built over a cemetery that was used to bury heterosexual men. Their curse, they say, is that there will never be life on the Kotla pitch.
For this World Cup, Ankit Dutta has finally been freed from that curse and prepared the truest Kotla pitch I have ever seen, resulting in the fastest World Cup century and the World Cup The total number of Cup teams reached a record high. Delhi Capitals manager Sourav Ganguly had to face this after years of dissatisfaction with Pitch and Dutta. The pitch was brought back to life only after the soil was re-laid after this year’s IPL.
Beyond the Kotla are the old offices of newspapers (now it appears that the entire Fleet Street of Delhi has been moved to Noida), the Income Tax Office and the Delhi Police Headquarters. If there is important air on the south side of the road, on the north side, Purani Dili, it’s a different world. A walk or train ride above ground from gourmet paradises Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk offers not only delicious food but also rare books, indigenous orthopedic clinics, and the most glorious and unapologetic display of sex. You will pass in front of the doctor. promise “Mardana Takato”, which loosely means male toxicity.
The longest running sexist joke was telling the DDCA people to let these charlatans inject themselves. Mardana Takato into the pitch. It mattered little, as Delhi had always turned out decent crowds to cricket matches. It is no surprise that the first big crowd of this World Cup came out of Delhi, even if it was South Africa vs Sri Lanka.
Even in domestic cricket, young people from nearby Ansari Street, Purani Dili Hundreds of people come out to the Mohinder Amarnath stand to show off how much they know about cricket. They bring Urdu newspapers with detailed reports of these matches. There are no markings or jersey numbers to differentiate the players, but you can tell the difference between Rohit Rayudu and Ambati Rayudu.
Their expression is that the joke is never meant to be mean. When Ashley Giles shut down Sachin Tendulkar with a negative line on the wicket, a bored man in the stands yelled “Pakistan” and immediately said “High highThe reaction continued. Everyone did it once, laughed, and went back to napping. There was no malicious connection to it. It didn’t lead to any hatred. They weren’t kicked out just because they didn’t participate.
One of my best watching experiences at an Indian ground was in 2015-16 when they attempted an impossible draw, with everyone in the stands watching in suspense as Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers blocked He was counting every ball he played. No one made an announcement, but the stands erupted in applause when the partnership reached 100 pitches. That crowd still faces all the stereotypes about North India.
You can see why Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma were battle-ready during domestic matches. It’s the extreme competitiveness and pettiness between players. It all comes from the system. Otherwise you cannot survive. You can see all this because you can watch in an intimate setting. If you are lucky enough to watch a Ranji match here in the New Year as the AQI begins to settle down again, there are few experiences more enjoyable than watching domestic cricket in Kotla under the winter sun. From the ridicule from the stands to the lack of effort from players and administrators to keep dirty laundry from airing in public.
I’ve spent many years of lazy winters, like watching the first session and wandering into alleys. Purani Dili In the afternoon we often stop at Ghari Qasim, the house where Mirza Ghalib once lived, for some sinful food, and then return to the kotla, away from the urinals, where weary bowlers are still slowly reeling from the slump. I watched as it was about to come to life. surface. Purani Dili This is a very busy place and there are a lot of small businesses keeping busy. But you can just as easily step aside and find a place to do nothing.
Perhaps Kotla the ground is just benefiting from being in the right place. It is a place where Delhi’s past, present and future come together. The ground in Feroz Shah Kotla is a bit similar to the area where I live. It’s rough and doesn’t care how it looks, but it has a heart and hopes in the fading sun that the overnight moisture will help the first hour of the next day.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
