The cellphone lights sparkled like diamonds in the night sky. But the stinky and wet toilets cut a sorry figure.
The Eden Gardens, even with a curtailed crowd capacity, is unmatched when it comes to cricket passion, many fans who have been to other stadiums told this newspaper.
But several old problems persist. The ticket prices have gone up but spectator comfort is not high up on the priority list of the organisers, a big match showed.
Based on conversations with several spectators who witnessed history on Sunday, Metro lists the yays and nays of Eden.
Lows
Stink and smoke
Aman Mundra, who was in K1 Block, went to the washroom before the start of the match. It was reasonably clean. But when he went for a second time in the innings break, it was a different place.
“It was wet all over. It was stinky. Even the path leading to the toilet was completely wet. Cigarette butts,
gutka packets lay strewn all over. It was a pathetic experience,” said Mundra, a businessman who came from Alipurduar for the match with three friends.
Srijeeb Krishna Mukherjee could not go to the washroom because it felt like a “gas chamber”. “So many people were smoking inside. It was difficult to breathe,” said Mukherjee, who works with a nationalised bank.
Several supporters complained about water scarcity in the washrooms in the second half of the match.
“When I went to the washroom around 7pm, water was barely dripping from the tap at the basin. I went to another washroom. There was no water at all in the second one,” said Dulal Dey, who works with a paint company and had got a sponsors’ ticket to the stadium.
Sour taste
The food sold at the catering units was cold and tasteless, said multiple visitors.
If the food was bad, the attitude of the people selling them was allegedly worse, said some.
“They are charging so much. We should at least get hot food,” said Ved Parwah, who came from Lake Town.
He went down after the fall of a couple of South African wickets to get some refreshments. He got pizzas, burgers and soft drinks.
“A small veg pizza cost me Rs 250. A veg burger came for Rs 100. But both items were cold. When I complained, the man at the counter yelled at me,” he said.
“Take it or leave it,” Parwah quoted the man as telling him.
A South African in the stands missed vendors on the move, like he has seen in stadiums across the world — from the classic fish and chips at Lords to lobster rolls at the Caribbean venues.
“There were no roving food or drinks vendors. You had to leave your seat each time to get something, resulting in constant movement of people,” said Kevin Miles, who was in Block L.
When this newspaper called Naresh Ojha, secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal, to seek a formal response on the allegations, he said he would call back. He did not. Subsequent calls to him went unanswered and a message was not replied to.
High points
Starry night
One of the standout moments came as Virat Kohli neared the landmark 49th ton. Out came the cellphones. Within minutes, lights were flashed. “We have a night sky. We have lights sparkling like diamonds in the night sky,” Mark Nicholas, the English commentator, said.
It was an incredible sight, one that stays with you forever, said more than one fan.
“It felt like a fairytale. I had always wanted to come to the Eden Gardens. For me, that is the lasting memory of the match. One legend reaching a milestone set by another legend and a legendary venue celebrating the moment in style,” said Nivedita Sharma, who came from Dibrugarh, Assam, for the match.
Gracious host
Miles, the South African supporter, was very impressed by the behaviour of the home crowd.
Many Indian fans patted him on the back after the match. “Hard luck,” said more than one fan.
He has seen his team
lose matches at other stadiums.
“In other countries when y
our team loses, the locals really give you a hard time. They rub it in. But last night was the opposite. The local fans were gracious in victory,” he said.
Goosebumps
Alankrita Chakraborty, part of the group from Alipurduar, had goosebumps when the Indian national anthem was played out at the start of the match.
“The entire stadium standing and singing the anthem gave me goosebumps. I saw some of the fans in my gallery (K Block) were moved to tears,” said Chakraborty, a lawyer who visited Eden for the first time on Sunday.
Sreyaansh Biswas, a Class IV student at St Xavier’s Collegiate School, was part of the children’s brigade that accompanied the players to the ground and sang the national anthem with them.
“It was the best moment of my life. Singing the anthem with the players. I wished Kohli ‘happy birthday’. That was special,” said Biswas.