Noisy crowd minus the streakers

I think I’m going deaf. One day in a stadium that was a third full and my head is echoing. The best I can do to describe the noise is to compare it to when a streaker runs out on an Australian ground. There it might happen once late in a one-dayer, but here it’s every few minutes. For a single, for Sourav Ganguly fielding cleanly, for Sachin Tendulkar running to the boundary, for a Ricky Ponting four. And every time they roar I look for someone running on the field wearing nothing but an Australian flag – or less. Like much in India, it’s a fabulous experience that will take a while to get used to.