Rex Clementine
in Guwahati

Having played in key Indian cricket centers like Bombay, Pune, and Rajkot, the Sri Lankans find themselves in the remote city of Guwahati where cricket is not all that established.

Guwahati’s cricket ground is known as Barsapara Stadium and it was built by Assam Cricket Association on massive land gifted by the government. Earlier, the venue was a dumping ground. The first international match was played here in 2017 when India hosted Australia. Since then, there have been three T-20s and one ODI.

Getting here is not that easy. There are no direct flights from Rajkot to Guwahati and you have to either fly to one of the bigger cities like Delhi, Bombay or Calcutta. The teams of course have no such issues as they are on a chartered flight.

IndiGo, a budget airline that reporters chose to fly has interesting ways of attracting customers. Most airlines address their passengers as ‘ladies and gentlemen’ and that’s supposed to be the norm of greeting. But IndiGo is different. They say, ‘ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,’ cheering up our youthful exuberance.

Your first impressions of Guwahati are good. It’s a clean and neat airport and very well maintained. The airport is 20 kilometers from the city and there are both prepaid taxi services and other services like Uber and Ola, the local version of Pick Me.

Airports in India have improved remarkably in the last ten years. Bangalore is by far the best and it gives you the impression of a European destination. Not even London Heathrow terminals are fit to hold a candle to Bangalore airport. Bombay and Delhi aren’t far behind but Madras is still living in 1980s – unclean, unprofessional, and grumpy immigration. They say don’t judge a book by its cover. Similarly, don’t judge India by Madras airport although first impressions count a lot.

Food in Rajkot is mostly vegetarian. The state of Gujarat, where Rajkot is, happens to be a dry state. Locals here adhere to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who launched his independence movement from Rajkot. Gandhi also wrote about refraining from eating meat and in fact went on to suggest that food should be consumed like medicine ‘in moderation’.

Having foregone meat in Rajkot, Guwahati is like heaven as there’s plenty of fish, chicken, and mutton here. Yet to sight beef and pork though during this trip to India. That should be sorted in our next destination – Calcutta.

Guwahati is in the Indian state of Assam, which is not very far from countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Nepalese food and places of worship are popular here and people look more Nepalese than Indian.

Tea is a popular cultivation in the state of Assam and the temperature here is below 20 degrees Celsius during the day time and it drops to single digits as the sun goes down. It gets dark in Guwahati by 5pm.

Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka is a popular man in India. Two broadsheets – Times of India and Indian Express had lengthy pieces about Shanaka and both stressed that he got a raw deal by not getting an IPL contract. Indian Express in fact called him ‘Negombo Nailer’ following his fastest half-century by a Sri Lankan in Pune giving the team a thrilling win that enabled them to square the series.