June 16: "A friend of mine has two VIP tickets for the ICC Champions Trophy India vs Pakistan final at The Oval. He paid £250 for each but didn't realise when he bought them that it was on his wedding. If you're interested, he is looking for someone to take his place! It's at a temple in Gravesend at 11am. The bride is 5'4", 115lbs and a good cook too. She will be the one in red lehenga."
This might be a joke doing the rounds on social media but it captures the cricket craze that's making Calcuttans tweak their travel schedule to catch the match of the year live in London this Sunday.
Shabad Punjabi and his friend Hardik Kanodia had booked tickets on Air India's Sunday flight from Calcutta to London with a stopover in Delhi but they are now flying to the British capital a day early to watch the Champions Trophy final on Sunday.
The duo, both 19, are going to the UK to undergo a one-month course in marketing at the London School of Economics. "The day India qualified for the Champions Trophy semi-final, we became certain that Virat Kohli's team will make it to the final and asked our parents to book our flight tickets a day early. I have requested a friend in London to get the match tickets for us," said Shabad, a commerce student who lives on Park Street.
"Six or seven of our friends will join us from Delhi. They have also changed their flight tickets to Saturday to watch the match," said the teenager, an M.S. Dhoni fan.The cricket fans are regulars at the Eden Gardens, for IPL and other matches, but they have never watched an India vs Pakistan match at a stadium. "While watching the Champions Trophy group-league match between India and Pakistan (June 4, Birmingham) on a giant screen, I did not think that I might get to watch them live so soon," said Shabad.
Hardik had gone to Sikkim with his parents on June 11 for a holiday with a plan to return to Calcutta on Saturday, the day before his London flight.
"After India reached the semi-finals, my friends and I coordinated on WhatsApp to come up with the plan to watch the dream final at London. And accordingly, I tweaked my Sikkim plan," Hardik said this evening before catching a flight to Calcutta from Bagdogra.
If Calcuttans are rushing to London for the match, those there are postponing their return flight so that they don't miss Sunday's Oval action.
Russell Mantosh, in his second year of graduation, is in London on holiday. The Moulali resident was scheduled to return to Calcutta on June 14 but has extended his stay another week.
"I have stayed back because India has reached the final. I plan to watch the final with some of my friends who will fly here for the match," Russell said from London.
Tour operators in the city said more groups would have flown to London from Calcutta had speedy availability of visa been assured.
In February 2016, hundreds from Calcutta had flown to Dhaka to watch the India-Pakistan match in the T20 Asia Cup, making the airfare shoot up from Rs 5,000 to Rs 19,000.
