ALKHOBAR, 18 April 2005 — Arab News-Le Meridien Cricket Pavilion closed after showing the last match between India and Pakistan, but not before making it a memorable day for some cricket fans.
Fifth grader, Farooq Hayat would remember the Arab News Pavilion for a long time.
He had cheered, clapped and prayed for team Pakistan and finally on the last day, had seen them clinch the series...But the real excitement came when he was declared a winner too….Farooq won the Arab News-Le Meridien raffle, and got a lovely cake. He had missed school just to watch the match. Armed with bags of potato chips and a mobile phone, you could hear him calling out the score on the mobile to his dad, “84 for 4”. “I did not mind missing school today. It was worth it.”
Another winner who also missed school was Samar. Standing with her cake in hand, she confessed: “I have never won anything in a raffle. So it was quite an exciting day for me. The fact that Pakistan won the match, made my cake sweeter!”
Mobeena was perhaps the luckiest. She won a raffle and so did her son. But not only that, she met someone at the pavilion — whom she had last seen 30 years ago — this reporter!…Mobeena was in 5th grade at Cantonment School in Dhaka when this reporter was in 8th grade. “This has been a great day for me. Pakistan won the match. My son and I won the raffle, and I met someone from a past that I am most nostalgic about.” Over one hundred people attended the closing ceremony of the Arab News-Le Meridien Cricket Pavilion. Also present for the cake-cutting ceremony was general manager of the hotel, Michael Nugent. He thanked all the cricket lovers for making the Pavilion a big success. “It is great to see that people rose above politics and ideology and came together to watch and enjoy the match. He also thanked Prashant Sharma, the hotel’s marketing manager and Arab News for putting up a great Pavilion. “We plan on showing more matches in the future, cricket and even soccer.”
Prashant Sharma congratulated the Pakistani fans for their victory in the series. He added jokingly, “Today 30,000 Delhi-walas won’t be able to sleep.” When asked why only 30,000? He replied, “20,000 Indians and 10,000 policemen who were present today at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium”. Pakistan won the match comprehensively and emphatically. They were the underdogs and every cricket pundit had predicted that Pakistan would be defeated, drawing the series. But cricket is an exciting and unpredictable game. This series proved just that!
Rana Naveed ul-Hasan bagged the man of the series award…..Shaukat Ali, of the Meridien, would bag ‘the fan of the Pavilion award’. He is a true cricket fanatic. In his younger days, he missed his English matriculation exam paper just so he could watch an India-Pakistan match…This time, too, he was around to watch all the matches. You could talk to him between overs and lunch break, only, if you wanted his expert comment. At the end of the day, everyone left the Arab News Cricket Pavilion happy and satisfied with the outcome of a terrific game…and all of them were treated to a big slice of cake!
