Author: Sharmistha Gooptu

Sharmistha Gooptu in Birmingham The media enclosure has just a few people when I come in everyday around 9 or 9.15 am after grabbing a coffee in the media lounge. The others in our team are outside the stadium doing their live shows on the different streams. Most media people arrive by 10 am or so when the media enclosure starts to buzz. The ground is empty more or less except for a few staff persons or the ground-staff doing some work around the pitch. This morning, Gautam Gambhir and the Indian support staff arrived earlier than usual and from…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Birmingham Yesterday, Shubman Gill’s 150, his 200 and then his 250 were greeted by sounds of the conch so loud that it reverberated as far out as the media enclosure. And again, when Gill walked onto the field after tea, a loud shankh and calls of ‘go captain’ and a ball in the tricolour were thrown in the air in the Eric Hollies stand. Again the conch, as Gill hit another boundary in his partnership with Akash Deep. Clusters of supporters in bright yellow apparel held the gaze in the stand even as more tricolour balls were…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Birmingham Yesterday, on Day 1 of the Birmingham Test, I met Raghav and his girlfriend Anisha as I stepped inside the stadium. They were huddled together with their coffee, and he seemed to be explaining something to her. Both live in Northampton, an hour’s drive from Birmingham – both British Asians. Raghav’s family is originally from Baroda and he is “a big, big India fan” and terribly excited about cricket, though Anisha by her own admission, knows nothing about the game. It’s her first time here at a cricket stadium. “Raghav’s teaching me,” she laughed. There is…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Birmingham For most of us in the RevSportz team, this is our first time covering a Test at Edgbaston. For myself, while I have been to Birmingham several times in the past, including when I was covering the Commonwealth Games in 2022, Edgbaston was a venue I had gazed upon from the outside. As I entered today through the media gate, I was soaking in every bit of the atmosphere, and planning with my colleague Debasis to make a lunch time visit to the famous Eric Hollies stand, to capture spectators who are known to arrive there…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Birmingham I had embarked on my coverage of international sporting events, setting foot in Birmingham in 2022. It was also one of the very first international tours undertaken by RevSportz, a company that has since then grown by leaps and bounds on account of the hard work put in by each team member. RevSportz was a one-year-old company in 2022, struggling to find its way in the world of media coverage, and the Commonwealth Games was a challenge. None of us had accreditation for the Birmingham Games – we had missed the last day for applying but…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Leeds In sport some win and some lose, and every Indian left Headingley lamenting the slip between the cup and the lip. Some of them might have headed to a little cafe in the walking radius, for nothing soothes disappointment like some good food. Maybe, some masala medu vadas they had ordered and found palatable. And while Indian fans left the stadium in disappointment, these businesses had a good few days, ancillary to a gripping Test match. The area around Headingley is a quiet one with small cafés and shops mostly, and except for when there are…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Leeds I was at the same place as yesterday — the utilitarian Cafe Lento — for my morning cappuccino. It was a cold morning and the little place was chock-a-bloc. An Indian family walked in. On not finding enough places inside, one of the younger women told the elderly gentleman in the group that she and the others would take the chairs outside and ‘he and Ma’ could sit at the small table next to me. It sounded like Bangla, but not quite. The Behera family is originally from Odisha. Mr Biswanath Behera has a Kolkata connection,…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Leeds None in the Indian media contingent at Headingley is a fan of the food served in the Media Centre. But it’s a little bit worse for those of us who cannot endure bad coffee. After two consecutive days of dehydration caused by the Media Centre coffee, I resolved to find a decent cappuccino before I entered the stadium this morning. Directed by a police person and a security volunteer, I ventured in the first of the two directions pointed out by them. The Ugly Mugs Cafe, the only one on that side of the stadium, was…

Sharmistha Gooptu in Leeds “Half of Burley is here, in Headingley…for the (cricket) festival…I mean the Test match,” said Upama Nandy with a laugh. She is an Indian student working part-time in hospitality at this hallowed cricket ground. “I risked everything when I left my job and came to this country.” That was Prajnadip Pal, another Indian student, and part-time worker, who is also part of the hospitality team at Headingley. The lunch had just opened at the media centre and some of us were among the first to take our plates at the buffet. The menu had rice,…

Welcome team members clad in pink tees. Image : Revsportz Sharmistha Gooptu in Leeds The Yorkie welcome team of local residents of all ages, students and volunteers, wore pink tees with ‘Namaskar’ in Bengali letters and ‘Hello’ in a host of southern Indian languages including Tamil and Telugu, I am told. The Yorkies called out loud hellos and happily posed for pictures. At the entrance to the media box, I was directed by a couple of helpful young men in the Yorkie tees — clearly Indian volunteers. Both were extremely kind, directing me to the coffee area and helping me…