The best seat in the house

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 27

Which is the best place to sit and enjoy the game in a stadium?

You are way off the mark if you said the VIP Lounge, or those fancy corporate boxes.

Yes, you can have food and drinks there while watching the game, but that’s something you could have at home or at any restaurant too. You don’t come to a cricket game thinking of food and beverages; you go there to enjoy the game and the atmosphere.

So coming back to the question, the best seat is the one next to some young and enthusiastic cricketers who keep you updated and fascinated with their predictions and observations on the game. Seated next to a few young Punjab cricketers, this correspondent eavesdropped on their conversation and was left amazed with the accuracy of their predictions.

They started off with Sandeep Sharma’s over, the first of the innings, saying Warner won’t be able to get him away. Sharma finished with a maiden over. Then came Mitchell Johnson, and they said Warner would hammer him. The left-hander smashed two boundaries off his compatriot.

For Dhawan, their forecast was of dismissal. One even foresaw that Johnson would bang it short and get an edge. The left-hander was beaten for pace the next ball, a short one of course, and was caught in the slip. Just when their talk was becoming more absorbing and irresistible, this correspondent had to vacate the seat for the ticket-holders and return to the drab and boring press box.

So the next time you plan to see a match in the stadium, you know which seats you should look out for.

Making way for

the cheerleaders

Just at the start of the match, there was sudden commotion and chaos at one corner of the stadium. It appeared a fight had broken out amongst the spectators with all of them moving almost simultaneously in one direction.

However, it soon became clear that the cheerleaders were headed towards that corner en route to the platform where they would dance. The crowd moved with such alacrity lest the cheerleaders should use some other way to get to the platform.