Bonjour, new guests from small-town India
Puneet Dhawan of Accor is brimming with ideas on ways to revive the hospitality sector
“Today, no one is left out even if they are not at Mumbai's Wankhede. Feels like we're all spectators inside one humungous, sub-continent shaped stadium.”
This tweet by Mr Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, summed up the mood of the final day of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. As a the two co-hosts, India and Sri Lanka got ready for one of the biggest day in their sporting careers, business was put on the back burner and cricket was the only thing on the mind of corporate India.
The old adage that cricket is a religion in India seemed to come true on Saturday and if cricket was religion, Mr Sundar Raman, Indian Premier League's Chief Executive Officer, put it right when he tweeted Wankhede Stadium is the temple.
In Mumbai, all roads led to Wankhede and while some like Mr Shashi Tharoor were victims of the traffic snarls others like Mr Raman found it a smooth ride to the venue.
“Sitting in the Mumbai traffic, heading to the Wankhede Stadium. Missing a day's campaigning in Kerala, so trusting the two teams to make it worthwhile!” said Mr Tharoor on his Twitter page. While complimenting the job done by the Mumbai Police, Mr Raman said, “Mumbai Police doing a fab job managing the crowd. Request everyone to co-operate and support to ensure smooth flow of traffic.”
The business acumen of Mr Vijay Mallya, Chairman of the UB Group, made him hedge his liquor brands on both teams and he was quite happy to do so. “Royal Stag supports Sri Lanka...but McDowells, Signature and Kingfisher are proud to be Indian and India will win!” he said on his Twitter page.
The junior Mallya, Sidhartha, meanwhile, was keen to exorcise the ghost of 1999 World Cup where his school didn't let him go watch the final. “Whole family went to the 1999 WC final in England except me. Headmaster at boarding school didn't let me out!! Can't wait for tomorrow,” was his Tweet a day before the match.
On Saturday, be it the corporate czars of the country or the proverbial aam aadmi, cricket was running through the veins of country.
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