Team India arrive home in style: How Mumbai gave Indian cricket another memorable night

Few things unite India like cricket, politics and Bollywood. And judging by the turnout in Mumbai on Thursday for Team India’s victory parade following their triumph in the T20 World Cup last week, one might just say that cricket has a slight edge over the other two, especially in the aftermath of being crowned world champions.

And a major triumph it was for the Men in Blue in the Caribbean on Saturday as they finally managed to break their curse of not winning a single ICC event for more than a decade. This despite consistently being listed among the favourites for the title all these years and reaching the semi-finals or even the final more often than not.

Several Indian supporters, including the fan group that goes by the name ‘Bharat Army’, had cheered the Men in Blue on from the stands at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown in the final as well as in other venues across the Caribbean and the United States. After their victory over South Africa, the Indian team had even performed a lap of honour across the iconic venue while celebrating one of the most memorable victories in Indian cricket.

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All of that, however, would pale in comparison to the grand welcome that captain Rohit, head coach Rahul Dravid and the rest of the Indian contingent would receive back home in what surely was one of the most hectic days of their life.

India have had numerous memorable triumphs in bilateral affairs as well as at the continental level all these years, most notably winning back-to-back Test series in Australia and nearly pulling one off in England. India had also won the Asia Cup thrice during this period — twice in the ODI format and once in the T20I.

Winning a global event however, is a different ball game altogether and the reception that the Men in Blue received upon their arrival home , especially in Mumbai on Thursday evening, showed just how desperate Indian cricket and its billion-plus fans were to experience the joy of winning a World Cup once again, a feeling that had eluded them for more than a decade since MS Dhoni’s men won the 2013 Champions Trophy in England.

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Team India victory celebration: As it happened

Rohit and Co and their fans were supposed to have this moment in November last year, only to be denied last minute with a heartbreaking loss in the final of the ODI World Cup. With their never-say-die attitude in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, however, Indian cricket can afford to celebrate the way they did in 1983, 2007 and 2011.

It started with a massive turnout at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi where their long journey from Barbados had reached its conclusion. Rohit, Virat Kohli had been greeted with a loud cheer from the hundreds of fans, many of whom would have stayed up all night just to catch a glimpse of the newly-crowned world champions in the shortest format. After a quick stopover at a five-star hotel, the team met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence in the national capital.

‘Maximum City’ offers ‘Maximum Welcome’

The real welcome, however, would await the Indian team in one of the most famous stretches of road in the nation. An ocean of humanity had descended on Mumbai’s Marine Drive (officially known as the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Road) even before the Indian team had left the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

Before they hit the Western Express Highway in a white bus that was accompanied by a full convoy of security personnel, the Indian team’s Air Vistara aircraft had received a special welcome from the airport ground staff. Not only was the plane directed towards the terminal by a set of three cars, one of which had an individual waving the Indian tricolour, but the aircraft had even received a water salute.

Team India's flight UK1845 receives a water salute at Mumbai airport.#T20WorldCup #VictoryParade #Champions #ChampionsReturn pic.twitter.com/u8u4HtJyhl

— News18 CricketNext (@cricketnext) July 4, 2024

More than an hour had passed since India’s victory parade was supposed to begin in Marine Drive. It was supposed to be an encore of the celebrations that Dhoni and company had received after winning the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. However, while the open-top bus parade had taken place with daylight still around back then, it was well past sunset by the time the Indian team got on top of the bus at the NPCA end of Marine Drive on Thursday.

Rohit had been part of both celebrations, having scored a crucial knock of 30 not out in the final of the 2007 edition against Pakistan. The difference, however, was that while he had only started his cricketing journey around that time and had his entire senior career ahead of him, Rohit was leading the parade as a leader this time around in the twilight of his career.

The Men in Blue, who were accompanied by senior BCCI officials Jay Shah, Rajeev Shukla and Roger Binny atop the bus, took their time with the parade, soaking in each and every moment as the bus that had a special blue livery with the word “CHAMPIONS” written in bold moved at a snail’s pace.

More than 300,000 Mumbaikars and 5,000 police officials, after all, had turned up at the ‘Queen’s Necklace’ for Team India’s grand reception and nearly every available inch on the west-southwest-facing stretch of road had been taken up by vociferous fans. With the lights turned on, the sight of the team bus surrounded by a sea of humanity making its way towards one of the most iconic cricketing venues in the world made for a breathtaking sight.

Just as memorable was the felicitation ceremony at the Wankhede, where India had famously won the 2011 ODI World Cup final to end a 28-year wait for a world title.

Kohli reminisced the celebrations that had followed the Men in Blue’s victory over Sri Lanka on that April night 13 years ago, and admitted to finally understanding the emotions that senior players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan had experienced back then.

Additionally, outgoing head coach Rahul Dravid thanked his team, his support staff and the fans before signing off from the role, which was originally supposed to have concluded at the end of last year’s ODI World Cup.

Equally special was Hardik Pandya’s homecoming at the venue that is his home turf in the IPL once again. It was only a couple of months ago that the all-rounder had been booed left, right and centre by a hostile Wankhede crowd as well as by fans in other venues across the nation.

On Thursday, not only did the packed house at Wankhede chant his name, but skipper Rohit also made it a point to publicly credit him for India’s triumph, the gesture of which had the MI captain in tears.

The Indian team would later perform a lap of honour around the stadium shortly after receiving a cheque of Rs 125 crore from the BCCI, with several players breaking into impromptu jigs from time to time. It hadn’t felt this good being an Indian cricketer or a fan of the team in a long time, and the players had every right to do the most random of acts without having to explain themselves.

Not everything went according to plan that evening, and having to manage a crowd the size of the population of a small European nation would make for one of the most challenging nights of the year for Mumbai police.

Marine Drive was littered with footwear once the celebrations were over, and some fans even had to be taken to a hospital , with a few of them fainting while watching the celebrations. A crowd of that size can be dangerous if not managed with proper measures in place, with the nation having witnessed a stampede at a religious event in Uttar Pradesh just a couple of days ago.

Thankfully for everyone involved, the incidents of concern were few and far between. Then again, for a nation that treats cricket at par with religion, such crowds are something of a norm and is perhaps what makes India unique among cricketing nations.

One only has to look at the handful of journalists that had showed up at the Sydney airport to greet Australia captain Pat Cummins after their triumph in the ODI World Cup — considered the sport’s showpiece event — last year to understand just how different things are in our part of the world. For Indians, cricket isn’t just a sport and Thursday’s events proved just that.