Way to Take One for the Team!

Jenna has been visiting Chennai this past week to visit me and help out with the next phase of Equip's latest venture. I didn't see her much during the week, but since I didn't have to work Friday (Republic Day), we had plenty of time to catch up over the weekend. The one thing that everyone here knows about Jenna is that she has a mad crush on the Indian cricket player Dhoni: This weekend, Chennai hosted the World Cup ODI (One Day Internationals) between India and the West Indies (I think-I'm so up on my cricket!). In between her training sessions, Jenna began plotting a strategy to meet Dhoni here in Chennai (previous attempts in both Delhi & Mumbai had already proved unsuccessful). It seemed fated to be when she met a cricket commentator in The Leather Bar Friday night who offered to leave us passes to the next day's match.

Which is how I found myself, approximately 10 minutes before the match was about to end, standing outside of the gate of the cricket stadium-the smell of urine and horse poop wafting through in the air-waiting and waiting and waiting. Surprise, surprise-no passes! Sigh. Jenna frantically calls the commentator guy-I mean we are so close to Dhoni, she feels that tonight will be the night she finally gets to meet him! Especially since he isn't playing tonight: he will be in the stands just watching the game-what a perfect time to chat him up!! As we are waiting for the commentator to come down and get us in, she points out to me that I need to be the one who has the mad crush on Dhoni. She can't, because she's been flirting with the commentator to get us in in the first place! You know me-I'm sooo good at faking hero worship. :) But, I don't have long to prepare for my role (I'm just hoping that there will be no follow-up questions!) as he comes down and gets us in. Jenna wastes no time-in the elevator to the VIP boxes, she tells the commentator all about my "crush". I try to play it off like I'm embarrassed that she's telling him all this; though I'm not sure if it came out that way! He did smile indulgently at me and suggested I stake out the hotel where the players are staying.

But the whole charade was all for nothing!!!! Sigh. The commentator dumps us in an empty VIP booth, on the opposite side from where the players were sitting and tells us that he has to go for a studio shoot. So, dejectedly, we sit and watch India loose the last few minutes of the match, knowing we have no hope of meeting Dhoni. We can't even see him across the field from us!