Cricket-crazy India came to a near halt on Wednesday as millions of fans tuned in to follow a high-voltage final one-day game against traditional rival Pakistan on Wednesday.
Government and private offices were virtually deserted and traffic in all major cities thinned as people sat glued to their television sets for the series-deciding day-night clash being played in the northern Pakistani city of Lahore.
“I can’t hope to get a better match in the near future. So I am heading home to watch the game,” said Prakash Shah, a government employee in the western city of Ahmedabad.
India and Pakistan are tied 2-2 in the five-match series, the first being played between the nuclear-armed neighbors in Pakistan in 14 years.
India had banned all bilateral cricket with Pakistan in 2000 due to tensions over Kashmir, at the heart of decades of enmity between the two countries who have gone to war three times in the last half a century.
But ties have since warmed and the neighbors are making slow progress in a renewed bid for peace launched last year.
'War without guns'
Cricketing duels between India and Pakistan generate a frenzy in both countries and the contests have in the past been called “war without guns.” The current series, though billed as a “goodwill series,” has been no exception.
Some senior government officers said they had rescheduled meetings so that they could watch the match uninterrupted. Local media reports said the Delhi state legislature had advanced a sitting of the chambers to allow lawmakers to watch the match.
Several cinemas across the country suspended regular screening of films to show the match.
Display windows of TV shops were, however, the favorite spot for the millions who do not have TV sets. Large crowds gathered outside TV shops to watch India bat after Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss and asked the opposition to bat.
A top private firm in the western Gujarat state declared a holiday in the afternoon when the match began and put up a giant TV screen in the office for employees wanting to watch the game.
Advertising firm Grey Worldwide converted a 40-seater auditorium at its Bombay office into a temporary stadium with a giant TV screen.
“It’s a good way of bonding in office to sit together and see the match,” said Nirvik Singh, the firm’s South Asia chairman.
Also on the menu, Singh said, was a steady flow of food and beverages, followed by beer in the evening. And if India win, he added, champagne would flow.