Victory drive: The Indian team’s cavalcade winds its way through a sea of fans in Mumbai on July 4, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Being patient, be it for delayed or disrupted local train service or due to traffic snarls, is so ingrained in the life of a Mumbaikar that he or she doesn’t mind when it’s often misrepresented or glorified as the ‘Spirit of Mumbai.’
On Thursday, a majority of those who were stuck in terrible traffic jam would not have minded it.
After all, it was for cricket, another passion of a Mumbaikar as Rohit Sharma’s victorious batch of 2024 “brought the metropolis to a standstill” in a style similar to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men famously did 17 years ago.
While ‘Dhoni’s Dashers’ 25-km long bus parade in 2007 had attracted lakh of fans, Thursday saw an enormous crowd concentrated in the two-kilometre radius around the Wankhede Stadium.
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Delayed
The squad’s arrival from New Delhi, after meeting the Prime Minister, was delayed by almost two hours and by the time the team bus got out of the Mumbai airport, the evening traffic had peaked.
It led to a commotion and a corridor being created for the bus.
Early birds
At the other end of the Maximum City, the fans had thronged in and around the Wankhede Stadium more than six hours before the expected start of the victory parade.
While it was announced that the Wankhede gates would open at 4 p.m., huge queues outside the various gates meant the security forces had to advance the opening to around 3.30 p.m.
With little arrangements in place, it led to a crowding at every staircase entrance.
Though a grievous incident was averted, soon after the gates were locked, abandoned footwear were witnessed at various staircases.
But once they were inside, the spectators were kept entertained by a DJ.
Meanwhile, on the Marine Drive, the police struggled to manage a huge crowd, estimated to be over two lakh.
But once the victory parade — with a 1.7km distance to cover — finally started at 7.38 p.m., the wait through a heated afternoon and a wet evening was worth it as the fans went wild with cheers for India’s second T20 World Cup trophy.
And when the cavalcade entered the Wankhede two hours hence, the 25,000-plus turnout at the ‘Big W’ that had sat patiently, with little to eat or drink, rejoiced along with the Men in Blue.
Worth the wait
On this day, a 17-year-wait for a T20 World Cup seemed nothing for ardent cricket fans in comparison to a six to eight-hour ordeal to celebrate with their cricketing stars!
