Lahore: Cricket fans in Lahore are only interested in the One-day match between India and Pakistan. Early morning I heard a knock on my hotel room door. "Sir, can you get us a pass for the one-dayers please," asked a room boy. Looks like they thought reporters had access to passes! When I reminded them that 50 per cent of the seats were free, they said: "For the One-dayers there will not be any seat free."
Hotel Elites, which is situated on M.M. Alam road, is filled with cricket-crazy staff. Every time I called room service, the person receiving the call would first talk cricket before taking my request. The room boy too seems to be well versed in cricket for he always leaves my room long after the food that he has brought has turned cold.
By the time I am ready to leave for the day, the room boy is waiting outside my room, all ready to hail a taxi for me. Their enthusiasm for the game and the longing to witness a big one-dayer is so much that I may now buy them tickets for the One-dayer rather than tip them!
Being on a visa not exempted from police verification, I will have to report to the police station again. Now that I am leaving for Faisalabad tomorrow, I need to get an exit stamp from the city. So a PCB official asked a police constable to accompany me to the police station. All through the autorickshaw ride to the police station, the constable spoke cricket, and that too in chaste Urdu.
With my knowledge of Urdu near zero, all that I understood from his talk was that he was full praise for Afridi. At the station, a policeman sat at the desk fully covered by a muffler and a sheet, only his right hand holding the pen and his two eyes were visible. He asked me to sign on some paper and informed me before leaving that it would also rain in Faisalabad and that it will be as cold as in Lahore.
Strange experience
When we got back to the stadium, the constable refused to let me pay for the ride. "You are our guest," he said. For one who has only experienced constables in India whisking away your money, this was a strange experience.
In the past, press boxes in cricket stadiums used to be filled with potbellied male reporters. Times have changed and now what we have are stunning, young ladies and handsome young men. This changing face of the press box is attributed to the increasing number of television channels that supposedly recruit their staff based on their looks.
It used to be an experience by itself reporting along with veteran cricket reporters like Rajan Bala, Ron Hendricks, Kishore Bhimani, Sundar Rajan and R. Mohan. All discussions in the press box centered around cricket and one got to hear some lovely anecdotes on cricketers.
On Monday, when Dravid and Sehwag were inching towards the world record partnership, all that one heard was a long discussion between two reporters on the type of hand spun dresses available in Lahore's Liberty Market area. For most of the current reporters, a hair brush or a comb seem to be more important than a notebook!
