Gone are those days when a full Eden crowd would stand up to clap for a winning side that was not the home team........... Eden.........the stadium that hosted the greatest cricket-lovers of the world.
Memory still remains of the South African team taking a victory lap to a standing Eden crowd, all clapping in unison, in appreciation of the end of a great sporting event............Those were the late 90s............The last days of the great Eden...........
Cricket has changed.......the game is just not a game anymore.......it has been "Modi"fied......... bat and ball take a backseat behind liquor barons and Tinseltown glitterati...................
The game is no more about patience........it is about speed, agility and mongoose bats...............
And along with that our beloved Eden has died a slow death.............
It was the winter of 1996 when Eden died its first death........with rowdy crowds throwing bottles in the field................
And today it ultimately gave away when a hapless Virender Sehwag raised his bat to a silent crowd................. a crowd oblivious to good cricket, a crowd losing touch with "sporting spirit"........blinded by the glamour of winning............
as sportsmanship gives way to gamesmanship the Eden of my childhood is no more................ The Eden of Cricket is dead.............
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