A Bankura resident who was in Doha for the football World Cup final with an Argentina flag will be in Ahmedabad on Sunday with a flag of another shade of blue.
Subhendu Bandyopadhyay will be taking a flight from Calcutta on Saturday afternoon to reach Ahmedabad via Delhi and watch Sunday’s cricket World Cup final at Narendra Modi Stadium.
“I was rooting for Messi at the Doha final. Here, I will be shouting for the whole Indian team but my special prayers are for Virat Kohli,” said the 54-year-old who works as a hostel warden at Bankura Christian College.
He had been planning to go to the Ahmedabad final since July.
“In mid-September, the sale of tickets for the final was opened. I bought one on the second day with help of a friend on September 15, paying Rs 6,000,” said Bandyopadhyay.
His total expense for the three-day Ahmedabad trip will be around Rs 30,000, including the return airfare of Rs 18,000.
“I had booked early and so, got cheaper rates,” he said.
Metro reported on Friday how airfares to Ahmedabad had skyrocketed. A Calcutta-Ahmedabad roundtrip was costing Rs 80,000.
He had spent around Rs 4 lakh, including air tickets, for two matches in Qatar last year. He had procured the football tickets in July for the December 2022 matches.
Bandyopadhyay had never felt as thrilled as he did at Lusail Stadium in Qatar on December 18, 2022.
“That was my first trip abroad and that too for a football World Cup final. Some others who had gone from Calcutta who had seen several matches at stadiums earlier, said it was the most thrilling final they had seen,” he said.
“I was awestruck by the way Messi motivated his team after Kylian Mbappe’s goals made the score 2-2. I could not hear what Messi was saying but could make out from his body language,” he said. “I enjoyed the Messi-Mbappe dual and cannot explain how I felt.”
He also watched the match for third position in Qatar.
“There could be a similar dual between Kohli and Glenn Maxwell this Sunday,” he said.
But Bandyopadhyay is hoping the Ahmedabad final will not be as nail-biting as the Fifa World Cup final. “I want India to dominate the match like it has done throughout the tournament,” he said.
Bandyopadhyay was at Wankhede Stadium when MS Dhoni led India to victory, beating Sri Lanka to lift the World Cup in 2011. It was another thriller like the Doha final.
“Like many others, I also stood and grabbed the fence as Dhoni batted. It was a superstition. He was the only hope after Tendulkar got out,” he said. “That night, Dhoni was my hero. Now I am 12 years older but still feel the same excitement and hope I will be able to shout as I did then.”
Bandyopadhyay is crazy about both football and cricket and has seen many matches at the Eden Gardens and Calcutta Maidan with his father since childhood.
He had, however, never seen World Cup football matches in a stadium. “I could not bear the expense. But this time, since it was so close to our country, I had decided to watch the final,” he said. “No other event I have watched can match up to my experience in Doha.”
“The arrangements (in Doha) were outstanding,” said Bandyopadhyay. Transportation on the Metro was free and there was a counter outside the stadium distributing complimentary flags of both countries. He took flags of both Argentina and France but was waving the former at the stadium.
Bandyopadhyay had bought two footballs — the kind used in the World Cup — for his eight-year old son back home.
This time, he has purchased a jersey of the Indian cricket team online and will wear it at the stadium.
“But my son wants a jersey from the venue. I am planning to buy one for him and also get mementos from the ICC counters, which I am sure will be there,” said Bandyopadhyay.
He has one appeal to the ICC: Allow Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni to bring the coveted cup to the field before the start of the match.