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Boys are back
mumbaikars had scarcely bid adieu to their favourite deity when they poured back onto the streets to welcome the boys who had come back with the Cup. Cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his T20 team got a reception fit for the gods. When they finally reached wankhede Stadum after an exhilarating if exhausting five hour victory lap from the airport, the cavalcade stretched two kilometers into Marine Drive.
There was no indication of any of this in the morning. The sky was overcast and it was raining heavily when the flight landed at 8.30am. There was not a soul on the road to the airport and busloads of raucous NCP workers at the terminal only confirmed fears that the parade would be a damp squib. But by the time the team got onto the bus at 9 am, the crowds, perhaps alerted by television, began to appear. Soon enthusiasts were following the bus in cars and on bikes.
The heady sight of Dhoni’s boys dancing to music atop the double decker sent fans into raptures. The skipper himself remained seated, leaving Yuvaraj Singh, Harbhajan and Sree Santh to do the twist.
The Westren Expredd highway, which was deserted an hour earlier, was linked six deep. The procession moved so slowly that the 52 pilot marshalls were reduced to aclutch brake clutch crawl of 5 kmph.”Mumbai stops for no one but we have brought it to a halt for a day,” said Dhoni. Some image of the tumultuous reception stand out. peddar Road housewives beating steel thalils with spoons from their balconies. A Jain in a dhoti and a Muslim in a skull cap dancing side by side and blowing bugles on Cadell Road. Surgeons at Hinduja Hospital, still in their green gowns, showering flowers on the cricketers. There truant Borivli school children trying desperately to hide their uniforms beneath their raincoats. Laboures proudly declaring they were from Jharkhand, Dhoni home state.
A discordant note was struck by NCP attempt to hijack the show at the stadium. “Let speak in the rashta bhasha now,” were Dhoni’s first words when he took the mike after endles commentaries in English and political harangues in Marathi Perhaps the men in Khadi had failed to read a banner on Marine Drive, ‘Now, we need a young Indian political team’.