With just about 15 minutes to go for Kochi’s maiden Hero Indian Super League game, there were more crowds outside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday evening than inside.
The Kerala Blasters’ fans, many of them sporting the team’s yellow colours, appeared restless. But they had a good reason for that. They were waiting for the Master Blaster, the man who gave them the team along with PVP Global, to arrive.
And when Sachin Tendulkar arrived, they surrounded his car, cheering him loudly. After his arrival, the stadium began to fill up. Some 40,000 fans turned up to roar and cheer their home team against Goa.
That roar surely lifted the team for it finished with a memorable win.
Before the match, there was music and dance to lift the mood at the stadium.
There was Usha Uthup belting out some of her best numbers, a few girls dancing to the beat, laser lights and a sea of yellow almost everywhere as Kochi welcomed the Kerala Blasters FC home.
And a little after the Blasters and the FC Goa teams came in, to a loud roar and rich applause, the floodlights were switched off for special effects with just the lit-up red ad boards offering light as the players warmed up. This warmed the crowd, there was a loud cheer and thousands of little mobile phone flashlights came up to capture the mood.
And when Tendulkar came, the crowd rose as one to salute him. Nita Ambani, the chairperson of the Indian Super League, received the much-talked about autobiography of Tendulkar, ‘Playing It My Way’, during half-time. And in the end, the Blasters made Tendulkar’s day with the victory.
