THE IPL Experience

Disclaimer: The events listed below are absolutely true.

So the IPL is back for season 3 and thankfully it’s being held in India this time around. Every team is looking strong this time apart from Rajasthan Royals.

Anyways I was at the Brabourne for the Mumbai Indians VS Rajasthan Royals game, which can very well turn out to be the match of the season.

Now, you will think that it very simple to go for a IPL match. Just get the tickets and turn up at the stadium and that’s it.

Well, my dear friends, the only problem is it’s not that simple.

So we or should I say THE PLANNER thought of going for this match. It was Mumbai Indians first match and all of us except for 1 or 2 (maybe) support MI. It just felt right.
So when the tickets finally came online, we started to ask people who were interested in coming for the match. The tickets were priced starting from Rs. 500 and onwards. Initially, we were thinking of going for the 1000 bucks ticket. But, 1 of us said a firm “NO” (called “CHINDI” from here on in) which was right in the end but at that time it felt as if he was acting a bit stingy. So, it was decided that we will buy the 500 bucks ticket. But still after that, we didn’t have the COUNT.
The COUNT can be defined as the number of people who want to come for the match. The COUNT is also of two types:

1) Accurate Count: This type of COUNT refers to people who eventually turned up for the match which was 19 in our case.

2) Initial Count: This is the number of people who said at first that they will be there. But some have emergencies on that very day of the game which they had forgotten while saying “YES” in the 1st place.

3) Unexpected Increase: This in essence is not a type of COUNT but consists of the people who just say “I want to come for the game tomorrow”. Well, for starters, my advice for such people is that please receive your calls and even if you don’t, call back on the number.

So one fine morning a month before the match, we booked our tickets. While booking tickets, we had to keep in mind all the permutations and combinations like “If she/he is coming, only then I am coming” and “if she/he‘s coming I am not coming”. So we booked 9 tickets for us and another 10 for LAMBU’s Friends.

So after booking the tickets, we suddenly realized that we haven’t asked one of our friends who doesn’t work with us anymore (called EX-EMPLOYEE from here on in). So, we asked her/him. She/he said “YES”. And just like that we were two tickets short. Now, you will ask how 2 tickets short! Didn’t he just write “they asked one of his friends”?? Well, the answer to that question is there was another friend of ours who had said that if the friend we had asked to come will come then, she/he would also come. I know it sounds pretty confusing. But, come on use your grey cells for crying out loud. But, then one of our friends from office backed out. So, we had 1 ticket free and we just assumed because of the earlier Permutations and combinations that another friend of ours won’t come (called “UNDECIDED” from here on in). So we gave their tickets to our other two friends mentioned above. But, you should never ever in a zillion years ASSUME anything. ASSUME: ASS+U+ME….even the word says “Don’t bloody ASSUME”… so “UNDECIDED” said she/he wanted to come. So, again we were back at being 1 ticket short. We let the situation simmer for sometime as we were pretty sure that someone will backout in the end. And one of our friends did, so we were again at the same count. All tickets had a person’s name on it.

And then came the twist. The evening before the game one of our other friends (called “LATE LAATIF” from here on in) comes up and says “what about the tickets, dude? I so want to come for the match”. So dumbass, receive your calls when we call you. He was the unexpected increase as mentioned above. So the evening before the match we are all of a sudden a ticket short. After a lot of backroom politics, like CHINDI calling up UNDECIDED and asking him/her to come so that LATE-LAATIF won’t get to come. Finally, we came to know that the friend “UNDECIDED” has finally decided not to come for match. So that ticket was snapped up by “LATE LAATIF”.

So, finally the match day was here. We had decided to meet up at the stadium gates by 1300 hrs because the seats we booked were in the stand where there was “FREE SEATING”. So before that me, “THE PLANNER” (the guy/girl who had planned everything) and my other friend “KHAZAKISTAN” met up for lunch. As we were scouting for the Gate no. 7 we saw a guy selling MI jerseys. Me and THE PLANNER got ourselves MI jerseys for 200 bucks…(I know….True Story). Then we picked up our other Friend “HARDWORKER” from Churchgate and finally reached Gate No. 7. There we saw our friends “LAMBU”, “STUD” and CHINDI waiting for us. Now, CHINDI is RR’s supporters so he was not cool about our jerseys. And then the most embarrassing thing happened. CHINDI pointed out that the “A” was missing from “Adidas” making it “Didas” on the jersey. Anyways after we were made fun of, we gave a few interviews to some News Channels (Hope you guys saw me on TV), we realized it was already 1400 hrs and we might not get good seats. And we couldn’t go in because EX-EMPLOYEE and LATE LAATIF hadn’t come yet. So, a decision was made after CHINDI kept complaining that I and THE PLANNER will wait for the people who hadn’t come yet while the rest of them would go in and get good seats. After this was decided we called up LATE LAATIF and asked him where he was. He said he was nearby and will reach before the match started. But Alas, that was not true. In reality he was still a long way from the stadium. Also, LATE LAATIF told us that he had stomach ache or something and wasn’t feeling well. Finally, around 1445 hrs EX-EMPLOYEE reached the stadium and I escorted him/her inside the stadium. We met up with our friends there. I felt really bad for leaving behind THE PLANNER to wait for LATE LAATIF but I also didn’t want to miss the action. In the meantime, THE PLANNER standing outside the stadium was pissed off at LATE LAATIF and to spend his/her time updated his Facebook status. I saw LATE LAATIF and THE PLANNER in the stands after 5 overs were already bowled. As soon as LATE LAATIF sat down or should I say stood in front of us Sachin got out! We already wanted to beat LATE LAATIF up and this gave us a good enough reason to beat (as if arriving like royalty 2 hours late wasn’t enough) him/her. It seemed as if LATE LAATIF just couldn’t sit. The people sitting next to him actually got scared and changed their seats. The people behind kept on telling him to sit but he just couldn’t. Maybe his ASS was hurting.

As the match continued, CHINDI went through various expressions of disappointment as MI batsmen were murdering the RR bowlers. So to please himself, CHINDI kept staring at the cheerleaders and waving out to them to keep his spirits up.
Then came Yousuf Pathan and scored a century of 37 balls and CHINDI had the smuggest expression on his face. But thankfully Pathan got out. The last over was very tense. As Malinga was warming up, EX-EMPLOYEE started shouting “MALINGA, MALINGA”, we joined in, then the whole stand started shouting and then the whole stadium. For 6 deliveries, we shouted ourselves hoarse “MALINGA MALINGA MALINGA!!” When MI finally won it was pure Joy and relief. In the earlier seasons MI had snatched defeat from the jaws of Victory but finally they had won a close game. We waited till the presentation was over. Then we left.

All in all it was an amazing experience. There were a few lessons to be learnt in man-management which we all will keep in mind going forward. But, come on it was the game to watch this season.

P.S: This blog has been inspired by the fakeiplplayer’s Blog.