As an avid baseball fan, I would have been extremely disappointed to leave this country without checking in on baseball's colonial cousin, also known as India's official religion, cricket. This year is the first year of a new professional league, the IPL, that uses a new cricket format (10 wickets, 20 overs) so that matches can be played in one night rather than several days. The teams are owned by the biggest names in India (Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Kahn, Reliance, Kingfisher) and the players are the best cricket players from all over the world.
Lindsay and I scalped tickets for seats in a section named after living cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar, who doubles as the captain of the Mumbai Indians. Though this is the first year of the league, the atmosphere, to say the least, was intense. Despite heat in the stadium that easily exceeded 165 degrees (and caused Lindsay and I to each lose about 10 pounds), there were intense chants, dancing, male and female cheerleaders in glittery lycra suits, raucous taunts and an atmosphere that makes the NFL look tame. The Mumbai Indians dominated the Knight Riders holding them to the lowest total all year in the IPL and Lindsay and I did our best to follow along and cheer whenever the Indians hit a 6 or got the Knight Riders to lose a wicket (definitely using the wrong term here).
I've been following the Mets from here, and if things don't improve, I might start following the Mumbai Indians a little more intensely.
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