Bangalore – India’s garden city

Rex Clementine in Bangalore

Of all India’s cricketing centers, Dharamshala is quite special for its natural beauty situated in the footsteps of Himalayas. But travelling there costs you an arm and leg with just a couple of flights available from Delhi. The road trip is the best option through the hills of Punjab. Sri Lanka of course do not have a game in Dharamshala. Two of their nine games of the tournament will be played in Bangalore – the garden city.

There are multiple daily flights from Colombo to Bangalore and a family trip in the long weekend to this lovely city is not a bad idea. The weather is pleasant and entertainment is plenty. IndiGo, a budget airline gets you here for a decent price. If you want to cut costs the best option is to fly to Madras and then catch the train.

Bangalore’s airport is of course a marvel. It is a state-of-the-art facility and many European airports are far behind Bangalore. The immigration and customs takes you less than 15 minutes. Hassle free parking and convenient cab services, all these make Bangalore airport a pleasant experience.

Out of the airport as you hit the highway to get to the city, you see all sorts of modern European cars on the road. Then, you wonder whether this is the same India that you visited 20 years ago. They have come a long way in the last two decades.

International cricket in Bangalore is of course played at Chinnaswamy Stadium. The venue is named after Chinnaswamy Mudaliar, a lawyer, who was a founding member of the Mysore State Cricket Association. He went onto become the President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (1977-1980).

It was at Chinnaswamy Stadium a certain Vivian Richards made his Test debut almost 50 years ago in 1974. He wasn’t alone. There was a certain Gordon Greenidge as well receiving his maroon cap for the first time.

Bangalore is also the home for some of India’s all-time greats of the sport. There was Gundappa Viswanath, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, Roger Binny and many more. Binny incidentally is the President of Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Some say that Binny, the 1983 World Cup winner is only a figurehead while the man who calls shots in cricket is Jay Shah, the son of India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. The correct way to put it is that Jay Shah isn’t Indian cricket’s most powerful man but world cricket’s most powerful man.

Not very far from Chinnaswamy Stadium, there is an exclusive club called Century Club. Like SSC, NCC, CCC and Tamil Union, Century Club is over 100 years old.

An Engineer in Bangalore named M. Visvesvaraya during the British rule of India tries to get a membership of Bangalore Club. But he’s refused membership as at that point the membership is exclusive for the British nationals.

Determined to form a club for the locals, Visvesvaraya meets the Mysore Maharaja floating the idea to form a club where Indians can get together. Generously, Mysore Maharaja donates a five-acre land inside the pristine Cubbon Park.

Then, 100 Indian civil servants come together to form the club and hence the name Century Club.

Getting membership at Century Club is extremely difficult these days. The club currently has a membership of 6000 and there is a 30 year wait if someone wants to get a new membership.

Members gather to Century Club for recreation and there are both indoor and outdoor sports and card games. The club also has some posh restaurants and several bars.

The club’s hotel with 30 room is also quite popular. It’s decently priced, at the heart of the city and has fabulous facilities. The only problem is booking a room there is a tedious task. Which is why during your travels to other parts of the world you need to make friendships. It doesn’t matter how many people you know in a city. All what matters is you need to know the right person. If you are in New Delhi, the go to person is Vijay Lokapally, the longstanding cricket writer of English daily Hindu. In Bombay, all your needs are taken care of by G. Viswanath, the cricket writer of Indian Express. If you are in Bangalore it is R. Kaushik, a freelance cricket writer. Knowing them is as good as knowing the Prime Minister of India.

Some Indians repay the complement saying that they don’t have to know the President of Sri Lanka when they come to Colombo. They only need to know the right reporter.