AHMEDABAD: The 12.30 PM flight that was set to leave for Ahmedabad from the Chennai airport on Friday hadn't left the dock at the scheduled time of departure. However, no one was focussing on that, at least not the passengers who were on board. Their attention was elsewhere — on the 2023 IPL finalists Chennai Super Kings contingent who were settling in the front half of the aeroplane.
Even as they settled in, the rest weren't. They were all trying to get a glimpse of their favourite cricketing stars, MS Dhoni in particular, right from the slope that took you to the dock to board the plane till the moment the seat belt sign went on. If one were to look up from their seat, all you could see are hands and mobile phones zoomed in, trying to get a picture or a video of whomever they could get in the frame. They didn't care about the name of the players, heck most of them weren't even sure who is who, for them, the yellow jersey was all that mattered.
It took about 25 minutes past the scheduled time as everyone settled in and the plane took off. That said it was only a matter of time before the fans tried different methods of smarts to sneak in and get a picture or a recording of the players. For example, an elderly woman in the back of the plane was straightforward.
She called upon a player who was standing and talking with a friend seated in the back, ‘Excuse me, just one minute sir’ asking him to turn around so that she could click a picture. Probably not satisfied with the angle/clarity, she would walk out of her seat to stand in front of him and click a picture of him, not with him, again as the player resorted to an awkward smile. It was clear that she did not know who the player was, nor was she interested in that. She then walked up to the front to seek permission for taking pictures only to be sent back.
Meanwhile, a middle-aged man — seated next to the friend to whom the aforementioned player was talking — randomly asked the player if he had tickets. 'Get me a ticket, no, I will come and cheer for you,' he would say as the player replied his belongings are in the bags. Without any hesitation, the middle-aged man would ask him to see if he can check and let him know. He would later take a young kid seated in front of him and walk him to the front — the plan it seemed was to record on the kid's mobile in the guise of going to the lavatory.
They would be back in a few minutes with little success, but with the confirmation that Dhoni is sitting in the front.
A while after, he would take another kid from the same row, presumably the earlier kid's sibling, to do a repeat of the same. Except this time, he would be stopped by the franchise officials to have a word before sending him back to his seat. There were several others who were talking about which player is standing and who is sitting in which row. Many, understandably, did not want to invade the privacy of the players too much and were happy to click pictures from away.
The flight would eventually land in Ahmedabad at 2.50 PM. The CSK team, led by Dhoni, was welcomed by a significant crowd. Some fans, including those who just landed, ran behind to see if they could get a closer glimpse of the players.
They might have been unsuccessful in their attempts, but those who were on that plane and in both Chennai and Ahmedabad airports on Friday afternoon, including this reporter, walked away with stories they could recount for a long time.