Shaun
The pictures had floated around the media, but the man in person, kicked off the mania. Virat Kohli lifted a routine Delhi Ranji Trophy tie against Railways out of its mundane existence, as 15,000 fans turned up at the Kotla on a Thursday morning to watch him in first-class cricket, his first outing since 2012.
A fan invaded the pitch within the hour, and chants rung from the Delhi metro onto the ground, as authorities had to scramble to accommodate more people in the stands.
Early on the late January morning, the Violet Line of the Delhi metro, leading upto the Kotla, was jam-packed with the coaches vibrating with chants of RCB, RCB.
Tejas, a third year law student, donning Royal Challengers Bengaluru jersey, was carrying three bottles of water and wrapped sandwiches and joked, “We are here to watch the Indian Railways play.”
His friend Nirvan, who came all the way from Sonepat using some choicest Delhi slang, blasted his friend, “We are only here for one guy. Virat Kohli. We can take care of our class attendance later but watching Kohli for free, you can’t skip it.”
Once you stepped out of Gate No 5, near the petrol pump, half a dozen boys from Burari calling themselves the “Northern Boys” were buying Virat’s jersey outside the stadium. Ganesh, who calls himself the captain of the pack, said, “Ranji kaun dekhta hai (who watches Ranji). We are here for Kohli.”
The spectators started to line up outside Gate No 16 and 17 of the Arun Jaitley Stadium from 7 am. The Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) had thrown the game open for free entry to the public for two gates for the Gautam Gambhir stand — but at 9 am, the state association was forced to open Gate No 18 after fans broke the barricades.
Once the Gautam Gambhir stand was full, the association had to open the Bishan Singh Bedi alcove, which got filled in 10 minutes.
The approximate crowd for the opening day is around 15,000, and was adding by the minute, even as Delhi chose to bowl first.
Outside Gate 16, the crowd was involved in pushing and heckling the security guards and Delhi Police. A couple with a five-year-old kid fell down, while entering the game and got injured. A police bike was damaged. One of the police constables needed a bandage on the leg.
The crowd erupted once the superstar started doing warm-ups and the stadium was buzzing with chants of ‘Kohli, Kohli’.
There were a few boos as well after Delhi captain Ayush Badoni opted to field. But once Siddhant Sharma pinned Railways opener Anchit Yadav, the crowd erupted again.
The Kohli wave could take Ranji along in its wake.
In the eleventh over of the match, a fan entered the field and started running towards Kohli, with the former India captain asking security officials to go easy. After the incident, a dozen police commandos entered the stadium and were guarding the stand.
Former India opener WV Raman, who is doing commentary for the Jio Cinema compared Virat’s fan following to Sachin Tendulkar. “It is at par, isn’t it? I don’t know when I last saw so many people watching a Ranji Trophy match.”
