College of Arts and Crafts, Patna, students make sand World Cup on the banks of the Ganga. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, April 1: World Cup craze among three students of College of Arts and Crafts, Patna, transformed into a splendid 10ft sand sculpture on the other side of the Ganga.

The trio — Dhruv Kumar, Amarnath Kumar and Bachpan Kumar — sweated it out in the heat today for over five hours to complete their work — a replica of the World Cup placed on India map coloured saffron, white and green. They were thrilled to find people turning up to see their work.

Dhruv Kumar, a final year student of the college, said: “When India defeated Pakistan in the semi-final, three of us decided to make this. We want to portray our love and respect for Team India. We started the work early this morning and it took us more than five hours to complete it.”

Those who wish to see the work of the three students would just have to take a boat from the Collectorate Ghat and cross the Ganga.

Dhruv said their work was a little different from the other established ways to feel the World Cup fever.

“Many have painted themselves in the Tricolour, people have been performing havans, but this is something new. We used more than 150 bottles of colour. In short, this is our way to portray our enthusiasm over the match,” he said.

Dhruv acknowledged that they drew inspiration from renowned sand artist of Orissa Sudarshan Patnaik.

Amarnath said: “Now the Indian team has entered the World Cup final for the third time since 1983. We have had to wait with our fingers crossed till now. But this time we will surely win the World Cup.”

He, however, warned the Men in Blue against taking Sri Lanka lightly. “Yes, good teams like Australia, South Africa and Pakistan are out of the tournament. But we will commit a blunder if we take Sri Lanka lightly. Many would remember how Vinod Kambli broke down at the Eden Gardens in 1996, after we lost to Sri Lanka. It should not be a repetition of that day,” Amarnath said.

Bachpan was very excited to see the large number of people who had come to see their work. “We made this to cheer Team India, but we never thought so many people would turn up and appreciate our work,” Bachpan said.

Suresh Singh, who came to see the work, said: “The boatmen told me some young boys have made a replica of the World Cup. When I reached here, I was amazed to see the work.”