India came to a halt yesterday to gather around televisions, rooting for the country’s cricket team to end a 28-year wait for a World Cup win by beating Sri Lanka.Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium was packed to capacity with 32,000 fans as the final started. Indian flags were draped over the stands, with only a scattering of Sri Lankan flags in sight.Among the spectators were Indian President Pratibha Patil and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapakse. Other VIPs included Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.Also present were federal ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Farooq Abdullah and Kapil Sibal, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Home Minister R R Patil and other cabinet ministers.Adding a touch of glamour to the stands were top film stars including Rajnikanth, Vinod Khanna, Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan and Rahul Bose, former actress Sangita Bijlani and several Marathi film stars and television artists.Leading industrialists including Mukesh Ambani along with his wife Nita, Gautam Singhania and P K Munjal were seen cheering the Indian team.Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, senior party leaders L K Advani and Arun Jaitley and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray also witnessed the match in the stadium.Near-empty shopping complexes and malls, virtually deserted roads but packed pubs and clubs were the scenes in most cities and towns across India.Only shops that had TV sets on had people crowding around, not to buy goods but to watch the drama unfold at the Wankhade stadium.The Times of India summed up the mood among the cricket-obsessed nation of 1.2bn with its front page headline “A Nation Holds Its Breath.”The tension of the high-stakes game was even evident during a chaotic coin toss. Match referee Jeff Crowe didn’t hear the call before the coin landed and a re-throw was necessary. Sri Lanka eventually won it.More than 3,000 police officers and paramilitaries were on duty to prevent a repeat of the November 2008 attack by militants on several targets in Mumbai, which killed 166 people.Both teams stayed in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, rebuilt after it was partially destroyed in gun fights involving the attackers in 2008.
The streets around the Taj were all blocked by police with armored vehicles. Inside, the lobby was buzzing with people in shirts emblazoned with “Sahara India” or “Sri Lanka.” The shops inside were closed. Most vehicles were not allowed to approach the entrance and guests had to walk from a security checkpoint to the main door. Escorts offered umbrellas against the beating sun.Police with bamboo sticks patrolled with armed paramilitaries around the stadium and a no-fly zone had been imposed over south Mumbai.Any roads around the stadium that weren’t closed were teeming with fans by 10am, more than four hours before the start. Panin Shah, a 32-year-old stockbroker, spent five hours on the train travelling to Mumbai on Friday before waiting at the stadium for another four hours to pick up the ticket he booked online, according to the Associated Press news agency.Then yesterday morning, he, like everyone else, had to negotiate multiple and very hands-on security checks before finally getting inside the stadium.“I don’t mind the security at all,” AP quoted him as saying as he put his shoes back on following the latest check. “It’s necessary.”