advertisement
Cheered on by thousands of fans assembled inside the Wankhede Stadium and by the huge crowd that had turned the Marine Drive into a sea of people, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) felicitated the Champions as they returned home with the trophy.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the two elder statesmen of the Indian team, articulated the feelings of players to the scores of fans across the country when they told the huge gathering how happy and proud they were feeling after bringing the trophy back home.
The BCCI handed over to the team and the support staff a cheque of Rs 125 crore that it had announced as a reward for their victory.
Rohit expressed his emotions and his teammates at the Wankhede Stadium, saying:
The stadium was packed to the rafters since 3 pm as they waited for the team to arrive from Delhi, travel from the Mumbai airport to Nariman Point for a victory parade over an open-top bus along the Marine Drive, crawling through a sea of humanity which delayed the function by a couple of hours.
Neither the players nor the waiting crowd was bothered by the delay despite first being roasted by the afternoon sun and then soaked by a drizzle. While the crowd cheered them on, the players ran into the crowd, danced along with the supporters, cheered each other, and thanked the fans as they expressed their delight at being able to watch the demigods.
Rohit hailed his teammates Suryakumar Yadav, for his sensational catch off David Miller in the final at Bridgetown, Barbados, and Hardik Pandya for bowling that final over that sealed victory for India. He also said that every World Cup triumph is different and the last three that have come during his career were each special in its own way.
Rohit's praise for Hardik at the Wankhede was special considering the kind of things they had to face after the allrounder from Gujarat had replaced the local boy as captain of the IPL side Mumbai Indians.
Bumrah, once in a generation player, said Kohli. He agreed that Bumrah should be declared a "national treasure" for the way he saved the team from difficult situations during the World Cup.
Bumrah was declared the Player of the Tournament for his heroics and received a special round of applause from the crowd as Kohli urged them on.
He also made a special mention of head coach Rahul Dravid and the support staff for helping and guiding the team to triumph.
Bumrah on his part said that having his toddler son along with him at the Kensington Oval made it special for him, laughing off suggestions that he may have to encounter a petition signed by a billion people urging him not to quit the game.
While there were numerous moments for the fans to score in their memory for eternity, three would find a place in everyone's favourite moments of the evening. Top-most of those cherished moments will be when Rohit Sharma walked hand-in-hand with Virat Kohli to the crowd near the stands as if saying thanks on their behalf as they retire from the game's shortest format.
On Thursday, there were no such scenes even though the two oldest members of the team and the most loved ones were retiring from this format of the game. However, there was no doubt in the minds of the gathered about the yeomen service both of them have rendered to the country.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)