New York (United States of America): India finished its 12-day eventful stay in New York and will be now flying to the warmer climes of Florida, where the Adelaide curated pitches were matured and stabilised on their way to New York.
At the Nassau County Cricket Stadium, India was put through high-difficulty games on wickets which even International Cricket Council (ICC) later acknowledged had niggles which needed to be set right.
If the Nassau County stadium was all about a pretty perch amid manicured greens of the popular Eisenhower Park, it was also about below-par scores, the wicket flying off the handle and players playing with fear of injury.
Other than that it was also about a record 34,500 largely Indian diaspora crowd on the India-Pakistan match day and a sub-continental spirit that converged on Long Island much to the consternation of the locals.
"I had never heard about cricket but, man, it is huge. No other sport on Long Island has been so big with such a huge draw," says Christian, who runs an Uber.
Even people like Michelle are happy that cricket came to New York. "It's been a busy June for me. Business has been good and my rooms all sold out. I love cricket. It made money for me," she says with a laugh.
Michelle's tony Airbnb facility has been housing journalists and fans for the season at Uniondale which is somewhat close to the stadium. The security arrangements have so far been impeccable with the NYPD handling the task with utmost efficiency.
"The crowd flow and the transits to the stadium, the car park facilities — everything was good for the fans," says a gushing cricket fan Vandana, who got some photo ops with veterans like Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Ricky Ponting and others in the car park.
For a World Cup to be held in a terrain alien to the game had to come with niggles of all kinds. Players, for one, had to go for practice to a faraway venue with makeshift press conferences being held in the ice hockey rink for lack of options.
Long walks into the deep parks which houses the nets was a name for all. Food and water arrangements were sorely missed and every time players needed water someone from the support staff would have to rush to the ice rink building in a golf cart to get some.
Nets are usually held at the match venue but the Nassau County stadium was not equipped for the practice area which was then provided to players at Cantiague Park, a 12-minute, 20-dollar drive from the match venue.
