A symphony of sounds – hoots, whistles and cheers – greeted the fans in the finals of the Indian Premier League as they grooved to the music of the maestro, AR Rahman.
The foot stomping music followed by performances from Ranveer Singh provided the perfect setting for closing ceremony of this year’s nail-biting tournament, which was no less than a Bollywood potboiler.
There was action, drama, fireworks on display at a packed Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday evening as a full capacity crowd was enthralled by the popular numbers of Rahman, which included the Oscar-winning ‘Jai Ho’.
There was a special film chronicling the journey of Indian cricket over the last 75 years and as the pictures of Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid were displayed on the giant screens, the huge roar by the crowd said it all – they were loving it.
As the television cameras panned towards the Rajasthan Royals dugout during Rahman’s performance, the young Yashasvi Jaiswal could be seen singing along with full enthusiasm.
While the police personnel had a difficult time ensuring that the fans were seated and all things went smoothly, the event was also attended by Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar and quite a few former India internationals. The delegates from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and other member nations also had a gala time as Ranveer whipped up a performance for the packed crowd.
The opening ceremony saw former India captain and erstwhile India head coach Ravi Shastri anchoring the event and as the popular commentator greeted the crowd with “Kemcho, Amdavad?”, he received a thunderous applause from the stands.
Before the song and dance began, the BCCI entered the Guinness Book of World Records by creating the largest white jersey. The jersey had 15 years of IPL embossed on it. It also had all10 team logos, BCCI and IPL crest on it.
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BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah and IPL chairman Brijesh Patel accepted the honour.
Amid all the glitz and glamour, two young captains – Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson – took the stage with determination and hope and pledged to play a fair game.
After two years of holding the tournament in the United Arab Emirates due to the COVID outbreak, the BCCI managed to successfully conduct the IPL in India this year and over the last few months, the Board had taken every initiative to make sure that it came up with a dazzling closing ceremony.
And on Sunday, they kept their promise. It, indeed, was an electrifying atmosphere at the world’s largest cricket stadium.