Re: Cricket Match you've been to
1999 World cup @ Lords final Pakistan vs. Australia
Led a group of 40 Travel Agents from KSA Riyadh at a final juncture of my moving over to Canada.
The group of 55 People including 15 female agents from Karachi & Dubai GSA setup was all put up in the Cumberland Hotel west end.
It was raining a night before the final, but the overall forecast was terrific.
The group celebrated a late semi-final victory bash at Leister square's Tiffany's discotheque. Adding to the fun of Semi-Final victory street party at the Green Street of London East-end few days earlier very close to my house there. The overall enjoyment factor was over whelming and wild.
Morning after breakfast buffet at hotel's Cedar lounge was hefty and lavish.
You could feel the obvious buzz around you in the lounge, on the street while loading up the 2 buses, doing a head count time after time, It was amazing.
Color Green was very prominent as Pakistan & Australia shared the Green-Yellow combination to some extent. The fun part was that the 'tourists in Central London' were apprehensive of the idea of Australia playing a 'Final rubber' or some’ thin playing Bat & Ball game with all the hola gola around them.
Same Hotel had Mr. Pankaj Udaas, ex Miss India Haseena (I believe that was the name) and many more dignis's from India & Pakistan together.
The Lords ground was magnificent and mind boggling to say the least. The grass was out of this world and less threaded and thinner than the best of the best Persian hand woven carpets.
The buzz and the sound (I hate to call it noise) was an experience on it own.
The buzz and the sound was no comparison to Liverpool vs. Man United match with the noise level to hit sonic levels I’m sure.
Over all it was a very hot day with mercury hitting 30c @ 1000 am. For Pakistan even hotter in every sense of the game anticipation.
The batting collapsed and the bowlers were given a daunting task of salvaging some kind of a pride element from the ashes.
The memory fades but the elements live on brighter and brighter by the day.