One sport that every Indian follows religiously is nothing but Cricket. Cricket is in our veins. Few may be not very fond of it but it's hard to stay away from the all the buzz. And especially when the nation has produced geniuses like Sachin Tendulkar, it's difficult to ignore. The fans discuss the game at random places with random people. It may be awkward sometimes to ask a random person route to a landmark but it is never weird to ask what's the current score? As such, the stories attached to cricket fan-following are myriad. I too have got mine. The story starts like this:
The 6th term has just ended and there is a gap of around 15 days before the new term starts. We have just survived the peak of academic pressure. Even though everyone is broke, it is the most opportune time to explore the outside world. We decide for Goa. The cricket world cup is also happening so it is important to schedule our plan such that it doesn't clash with any match. The next match is against South-Africa on the upcoming Sunday and so the plan is to book flight tickets for Sunday morning. This way we can enjoy our vacation to the fullest.
Finally, Goa happened. We had fun like never before. We wanted to enjoy each and every moment till it lasted which we did quite well. As expected, this was the personal best tour for everyone in the group.
But it rarely happens that everything goes according to the plan. And when plans are supposed to go haywire, nobody can stop it. The flight on the last day of our tour i.e. Sunday got delayed by 8 hours which meant that we had to miss the match. However some of us insisted very strongly that we plan something and not miss the game. But the problem was that we had already checked out of hotel and it was not possible to go back and turn on the TV. The only viable option that remained with us was to have breakfast at a restaurant which is broadcasting the match. Trust me we had really difficult time to find such a place. And when we finally got a restaurant, it was so expensive that we had no choice but to give it a miss. Suddenly one of us in the group suggested that why shouldn't we find a place which provides free Wi-Fi. I was carrying a laptop and this seemed like the best idea under that situation. Luckily we found a coffee house that was offering free Wi-Fi. Needless to say that we were able to watch half of the innings with no disruption.
When we look back we always talk about our plan not being fool proof. We didn't have any contingency plan. It was our luck that we were at a place where we could find a restaurant with Wi-Fi. But this would not be the case every time. I would not be carrying laptop everywhere. And we won't have access to TV or live streaming all the time. For example when I am at work it's almost impossible to stream a sports channel. I have to rely on my dear smartphone for all the cricketing updates. But again how reliable are those mobile networks. Thankfully I recently came across UC browser (more here: http://www.ucweb.com/), a convenient way to get match updates even at 2G speed. It also features UC Cricket, a space dedicated for cricket fans like me to connect us to the match wherever we are. [If you are unable to locate, simply open UC Browser - Home Screen and find "UC Cricket" with blue icon]. This ensures that I don't miss out on other important things, at least not because of Cricket.
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