Humour: Kolkata prepares to give Dada a farewell

Even as Sachin Tedulkar’s retirement has taken the rest of the world by a storm, people in Kolkata have no clue what’s going on. There has been a huge outcry for tickets from the rest of India which has surprised a lot of fans in Kolkata. “Only Dada (Ganguly) can create so much fuss. Is he coming out of retirement to play his final Test series?” asked a perplexed fan.

Sachin was reportedly very upset as his wax statue at the Eden Gardens resembled Sourav Ganguly more than him. Even Sachin’s name was misspelled with an ‘e’ added. The Cricket Association of Bengal, who decided to pay tribute to Sachin with a wax idol of the Little Master has erred big time.

“This wasn’t anywhere close to the fairytale farewell that BCCI promised me,” said Tendulkar. “I expected the government to grant holidays for people during the Test match. I expected the BCCI to arrange for a few helicopters so that people who didn’t get tickets could pay and watch the game from a bird’s view.

“Instead, I see thousands of empty seats at the venue. This is disappointing. One good thing about it is, I am not feeling any pressure at all, that this is my 199th Test,” added Tendulkar who scored two splendid boundaries off his pads before getting out, thanks to a poor decision from umpire Nigel Llong.

To rub salt on Tendulkar’s wounds, the minimal crowd that was present at the Eden Gardens when the Little Master walked out to bat stood up and cheered ‘Dada, Dada’ instead of the ever-so-famous ‘Sachin, Sachin’ chant. Not just that, the empty seats had the word ‘DADA’ printed on them. Sourav Ganguly had earlier said that he’s the king at Kolkata and even for those 5 days, he wouldn’t be surprised if he remains the undisputed king.

N Srinivasan has vented out his frustration by calling Jagmohan Dalmiya a ‘fraud’ which is weird coming from someone who was involved in pretty much similar controversies of late. “This has been done purposely to take a revenge on me and to spoil all our arrangements to give Sachin a fitting farewell. Dalmiya wants power and he’s doing all this to become the BCCI president,” said N Srinivasan.

“Dalmiya ke Dal mein kala hai,” said N Srinivasan in what was portrayed as a racist remark. “We give the CAB three more days to sort things out and give Sachin the Farewell he deserves. Else we’ll not have any IPL game in Kolkata next year,” Srinivasan added.

Sourav Ganguly just had two words to say, “Told you!” The West Indies players also gave Ganguly a guard of honor before the Prince of Kolkata walked out to do the pitch report at the Eden Gardens on Day 1. Will Sachin and Dada, two very good friends until today, remain friends after all this? Or, will BCCI do a last minute repair job? Only time will tell.