(WG) Gracing the Lords.....



It was a scintillating experience last week when i walked across the long room and stepped into Lords, the Mecca of Cricket. BV, Suchet and Myself went to Paddington and then hopped into St Johns Wood station in the tube to reach the cricket lover's Kabba.



As i had passed through the Bicentenary gates and then through the Grace gates, it was a wonderful feeling, which could be best captured in words only by Nirmal Shekar.
MCC arranges for a daily tour at 12 and 2 everyday (except for the days you have matches...)

We got our tickets and I was gazing through the antiques kept in the museum (in fact If my facts are correct, this might be the only place where you have a museum for cricket. First thing that struck me was the bat used by none other than WG Grace...He should be tall man who used long handle ones...



Then I stepped in Brian Johnston theatre(one of the All-time best commentators of the sport) where i saw portrait of Sunny Gavasakar (aamchi mumbaikar...) and was looking out for colonel vengsarkar's three centuries on the roll of honour...

From then, our guide Dave took over and led us to the long room and its bar. He was describing the different portraits and had a small quiz, which i had won (namake va...!!). I had a glimpse of the royal box, visiting team's dressing room where indian/australian team stays during the matches.

When dave opened the balcony, i was first person to step out into the famous balcony where vengsarkar was jumping when india won in 1983...(incidentally i might be the 2nd person to wave my sweater after saurav...did the famous one...).

Then I went to the gallery through the Edrich gate (named after the famous opener) and had few snaps, before we moved into the commentary box. What a view of lords from there....it was amazing experience...

And finally the most desired thing happened. I stepped into lords as a debutant and sat there for a while. The most pitiful thing was, we were not allowed to have a closer look at the 22 yards...



I just slowly moved into the lords shop and coolected few collectibles...took a grey-nichols willow and tried my hand for couple of minutes, before we walked towards the exit.

But definitely, till the game remains in my memory, the visit would remain in me.

Comments

balai said…
That must have been awesome. Cool!
9:31 PM
Krishna Prakash said…
Great blogging Lakshman.
Just today Ram introduced me to your other side.
You have a great eye-for-detail and the skill to translate it into words.
Keep going...
Regards
Krishna Prakash
4:30 AM
Triya said…
What an amazing experience. Am glad you took the time out to do it!! What did you get for getting the right answer? What's with the Detective Moochwala look?
4:13 AM
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