The Eden Gardens...

The Eden Gardens in Kolkata has witnessed so many matches that have decided the fate of Indian Cricket..

there was the dreadful and forgettable World Cup semi-finals in 1996... hardly any of the cricketing fans can forget that, can we? then the revival of Indian cricket in the second test against Australia led by Dravid, Laxman and Bhajji... that was in 2001.. we also faced a shameful home defeat to Pakistan in the Asian Test Championship at these very Eden Gardens...

The fans at Kolkata's Eden have the reputation for showing off their emotions in more expressible ways.. and hurling bottles at the ground when the home team is losing was always "normal" there.. the justification for the rowdy behavior of the crowd has been that they care a lot for the home team and so feel hurt when the team lets them down...

but yesterday's match was a surprise.. the local super-hero Sourav was not playing in the game and the pitch at the Edens was the greenest in years .. inspite of the fact that the home team was going with two spinners and if put to bat in first would be up with some serious trouble.. and what's more? the crowd was even cheering the losses of the home team.. at first thought, a neutral observer would think that this is a welcome change that the crowds at the Edens have started to behave in a more docile manner.. but after-thoughts suggest something very disturbing..

is this cheering the visitors thing a part of the "Get Sourav back" protests, that have been quite strong in Kolkata? has the Kolkata crowd grown so selfish that it places the interests of Ganguly over the interests of the Indian team? A team that we all cricketing fans so much love and care about? There was also some booing against Dravid and Chappell at the stadium.. and one wonders the possible consequences of this.. Although i feel that Ganguly deserves atleast to be considered for a place and was really sad that he was dropped, i think such hard decisions are necessary from the Team's point of view... and the crowd must realize that.. i think the Indian team is shaping out very well inspite of the pathetic loss today.. even when the Proteas had crossed the 100-mark with no loss, the commitment on the field was commendable.. we can just say that this was one of the bad days and move ahead......

The Eden Gardens at Kolkata is the home of Indian cricket and it is for the local crowd to live up to this image...