Thaindian News

Kolkata, April 2 (IANS) The streets of Kolkata wore a deserted look as cricket-crazy fans were glued to their television sets as clock ticked towards the start of the World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

Posters of Indian cricketers lined the streets, and were found in every nook and corner of the city. The city streets wore the look of an unofficial shutdown as the day progressed with most office-goers deciding to take a day off. Even a few private offices decided to declare the day a weekly off in order to cope up with numerous leave applications Saturday.

As the excitement soared across the country over the World Cup final, politicians in poll-bound West Bengal too wrapped up their campaigning by afternoon and many were glued to their TV sets.

Giant screens have been put up in a few parts of the city and various shopping malls and attracted huge crowds, which cheered for the Men in Blue.

But in midst of all excitement, there was pain among the cricket fanatics who missed son of soil Sourav Ganguly, and reminisced the 2003 World Cup final under his leadership which India lost to Australia.

“We are happy that India is in the final. But we miss Dada badly. We would have been very happy if he would have been in the field today playing side-by-side with Dhoni and his boys,” said Arup Sarkar, a 50 year old office-goer.