Highlights of the day

Had been to the Mecca of Cricket recently - The Lord’s cricket ground. The ground is located in St John’s Wood in the heart of London. We took a tour of the cricket ground. Our tour guide, aptly asked about the number of Indians and Australians amongst the people...And unsurprisingly a lot of people did actually turn out to be from these cricket loving nations..Much to the delight of our Aussie companions, the tour started with the original Ashes Urn....
The Urn is actually never used in the Ashes series and only the crystal replica much bigger than the original urn is used. The tour guide poked fun saying that this is something that the Australians can never take away from England....:D
After the museum we started of towards the Pavilion. A red carpet marked the entrance of a Pavilion. Photography was strictly prohibited inside the Pavilion and we were warned against camera lens caps unknowing falling and clicking mistakenly and all those attempts at capturing glimpses of the ground... The first part of the Pavilion was the famous Long Room from where the MCC members watched the match. Players make way from the Dressing room through the Long Room for entering/leaving the ground when their chance to play comes.. The walls of the Long Room were embellished with paintings of famous players of all times. Including Bradman, Viv Richards and many more...Was a bit disappointed not seeing Indian faces there... Apparently Sreesanth had used the length of the Long Room as an advantage for a match (can't recall how though..).. Adjacent to the Long Room was the Commitee Room, which, as the name suggest, is used by the MCC members for meetings. Interestly, if one really wishes to be a member, it takes an 18 year long wait and recommendation by 4 existing members... Arguably, worth the wait.
Through the Long Room Bar, we were taken to the players’ dressing rooms. The guide told us about which seat is a favourite of which player. The changing room balcony is also famous for its own reasons...This was where Kapil Dev lifted the World Cup and Sourav Ganguly ripped off his shirt and brandished it to the crowd after winning the Natwest Trophy...!.. The changing room also contained a board where the names of those who scored a century featured. A surprising fact is that Sachin Tendulkar has never scored a hundred at Lord’s so his name is not on the list, while Agarkar has scored a century at Lord's and his name features in the list..! Cricket was truely in the air of Lord's. Me, despite not being much of a cricket lover, could sense the identity of the game somehow intermingled with the spirit of the ground. I could imagine why its affect can be so overwhelming for a Cricket player/fan....
After the changing room we were taken to the Grand stand and the ground.. The capacity of the ground is 30000 seats and the view was awesome..Next was the Investec Media Centre, where the Commentators sit and the players enjoy their meal. The Investec Media Centre looked like the newest part of the ground as against the much older Pavilion. This was the last part of the tour and interestingly we din't quite realise how the 100 minutes flew..:)