As a group of Indian journalists looked around for the media entrance to Old Trafford stadium to watch India’s practice on Saturday, a car slowly pulled towards them. The man behind the wheel rolled down the window, hunched a bit in his seat and loudly spoke in his Punjabi drawl, “Yaar, World Cup jeete na jeete, kal jeetna hi hai.”
We don’t know whether he was an Indian fan or a Pakistani supporter, but that pretty much summed up the mood amongst the people from both the neighbouring countries, no matter which part of the world they might be living in.
If the organisers had their way, they would have sold the Old Trafford Stadium 20 times over for this game which had over 500,000 people wanting to be here on Sunday for the biggest spectacle in cricket. Not even the World Cup final attracted such demand. Only a FIFA World Cup match between top nations or possibly the Champions League final can match this frenzy.
While fans obviously have their reasons to be excited about the contest, players too have a chance to become heroes in one of the “biggest rivalry” in sport.
“It's the -- well, I don't want to say it's the biggest rivalry in sport, but I saw some stats, you know, which said I think the soccer World Cup final attracted 1.6 billion viewers,” said Pakistan coach Micky Arthur when asked if he enjoyed such an atmosphere.
“Tomorrow likely to get 1.5 billion. It doesn't get bigger than that. It doesn't get more exciting. I'm telling our players in the dressing room, you could be a hero tomorrow. Your careers are going to be defined by a moment in the game. You do something incredible tomorrow, you'll be remembered forever.
“Our kind of mantra is how do you want to be remembered? We've got 15 incredible cricketers in that dressing room, and we keep stressing to them, how do you want to be remembered? You're the class of 2019. What are they going to say about you in history? And tomorrow presents an unbelievable opportunity for these guys to really make a mark,” he explained.
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