Like in my birth city Kolkata, Melbourne on the east coast of Australia gets into the carnival when cricket takes place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, otherwise known as the MCG. The world’s second-biggest fare arena, in terms of prestige, claims the same status as the Lords of London, the Cricket Sanctuary and the Garden of Eden in Kolkata, where every cricketer in the world is a match. wish to play at least once in life.
In any part of the world, the frenzy of cricket and its associated celebrations multiplies as India takes on arch-rival Pakistan. It doesn’t matter if the match is played in Kolkata, Lahore, Dubai or Adelaide, the scene is the same everywhere – the host city goes into festival mode. The streets around the stadium were packed with fans wearing blue and black shirts, carrying the country’s flag and dancing to the tune of resounding drums. The stadium was always packed to its capacity with spectators – their thunderous roars echoed for miles.
This is exactly the atmosphere I enjoyed in Melbourne last week, where India faced Pakistan in the opening match of the T20 Men’s Football Championship group stage. As a guest of Visit Victoria, I flew from my home city of Sydney to Melbourne the day before the game to experience the host city’s cricket craze and its passionate fans, including thousands of people of Indian and Pakistani descent who joined the great cheerleaders and visitors from other parts of Australia and abroad, mainly India.
This year, the defending champion Australia is the host country of this special cricket competition, where each team can only win 20 matches. Matches are usually played under lights. While most of the country’s main cities are hosting all 45 matches of the tournament, MCG has been selected to host seven matches including the final and two of the tournament’s highest ratings. between India and Pakistan and Australia and Great Britain.
“Melbourne deserves to host these important matches because our city is the sports capital of Australia,” said Satish, a cricket enthusiast who moved to Melbourne from India about two decades ago. speak. There is certainly strong support for his bold claim.
Not only does Melbourne boast the largest cricket stadium in Australia, the city hosts a number of important sporting events year-round such as the Boxing Day Cricket Test, the Australian Open, the Australian Grand Prix. and the Australian Football League is very attractive to the people of Melbourne. The Friday before the Finals is a public holiday.
If Melbourne is the sports capital of the nation, the MCG can be seen as its parliament. For history, drama and pure emotion, it’s hard to look past this sporting venue.
Since its founding in 1853, the venue has hosted many major sporting events from the 1956 Summer Olympic Games, the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and the first Cricket Test up to the present. the final of the 1985 Benson & Hedges Cricket Tournament and the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
In addition to its sporting events, the MCG has also seen many blockbuster concerts, and even Pope John Paul II held a mass there when he visited Melbourne in 1986.
Without a doubt, it is a sacred site for sports lovers from all over the world, even if bat and ball is not their most favorite game.
There are MCG guided tours to give visitors the chance to feel some great sporting memories as they pass by the stands, pavilions, changing rooms and the famous Long Room, an arena for exclusively for members.
A cool feature for cricket lovers is the Honor Board that displays the names of cricketers who have scored a ton or won five crickets in a single play at the MCG. Indians feel proud to see the names of Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Kohli, Rahane, Bumrah and others sharing the long list with the world’s top cricketing legends.
However, for sports lovers, a visit to the Australian Sports Museum at the MCG can be highly recommended. It is a stop to celebrate sport in Australian society. There’s something for everyone from historical artifacts to some great moments in the sports story, places to learn about the wonders of Australia’s most popular games, Fun interactive moments and fair play opportunities.
But it’s not sport that makes Melbourne so vibrant and alive. Although I am a longtime Sydneysider, Melbourne is closer to my heart. I admire its colonial architecture surrounding its tree-lined boulevards, love its leisurely tram rides and riverside walks, enjoy sliding through the back streets, admiring the views culture, art and literature and enjoy the lively cafe atmosphere. More importantly, I see there through my explorations of the darkness of Kolkata, where I was born and lived a good part of my life.
Built on plains land with rivers surrounding the cityscape, both cities are state capitals, rich in history and heritage and with a particular interest in the creative elements of life. living from literature, theater, cinema to food and wine. Trams are part of a public transport system that is certainly a common link while a cruise on the Yarra River along the Botanical Gardens works synergistically with Hooghly sailing and passing through similar surroundings. on one’s own.
Like Kolkata, her love for art, literature, theater and cinema makes city life vibrant with excitement. Any visitor will notice that high-energy cultural displays are found in virtually every corner of the city but are evident when visiting the Southbank district, where the Southbank Theater and Arts Center presents works. by the Melbourne Theater Company and the National Gallery of Victoria showcasing extensive collections from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. Or when stopping at Federation Square, where art meets architecture. Melbournians claim the beating heart of the city’s culture.
Melbourne is known as one of the great street art capitals of the world with its unique artistic expression. Generally composed of spray-painted, stencilling or mural works, it uniquely presents a feast of color, ideas and energy while adorning the walls of many of the buildings in the alley. In one of these narrow streets it is nice to spot a mural of Indian cricket stars – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya.
I later discovered that this artwork was commissioned by Visit Victoria to celebrate the cricket excitement surrounding the India vs Pakistan match. What appeals to me most about Melbourne is its cafe culture, the city’s obsession with coffee being popular. Locals love to spend endless time in cafes with friends chatting about topics ranging from politics and sports to recent Netflix
film. Either quietly read the newspaper or read the last few pages of a best-selling book, taking a break from sipping coffee. Melbourne’s famous alleyways and arcades are an attraction in themselves, home to some of the best cafes in town, particularly around Flinders Lane, Degraves Street or Center Place Arcade. Visitors love spending time there enjoying Melbourne’s eclectic spirit and culinary flavors of cultural fusion and cosmology. Melbourne is also full of bars and one of my favorites is the Cricketer’s Bar at the Windsor Hotel Located at the end of Paris, overlooking Victoria’s majestic Parliament House, which dates back to 1853 This is a treasured Melbourne landmark and a venue for the city’s elites to meet, drink, dine, socialize and enjoy the city’s stylish atmosphere.
On match day, all domestic flights to Melbourne are overbooked and the cityscape looks like any neighborhood in Punjab or Tamilnadu with its streets, shops, restaurants and bars the coffee shop is packed with people from the subcontinent outnumbering the locals ‘gora’. There’s definitely a festive feel to the air, but the tension over who will win can’t be ignored.
“The Ashes can motivate 94 million people while the India-Pak competition runs around 1700m globally, so the tension and excitement is evident,” a ‘Bharat Army’ member told. me, who went all the way to Delhi to support Team India. His passion for cricket and especially for the game became apparent when I arrived at the pitch outside the stadium. I hardly see in Australia such a large group of people that greet my eyes with a splash of vibrant blues and greens. The atmosphere was euphoric as both India and Pakistan supporters danced to the beat of high-energy drums. The atmosphere inside is equally vibrant with thunderous roars from supporters at the boundary or a wicket drop being heard miles away.
It was an interesting match with India sealing the victory in the final round. However, for me it is a win for the cricket game and a big win for the host city Melbourne.
