A Royal Pair at Moti Baug in Baroda
This is where I watched my first cricket match ever– Australia Vs. Rest of India in ’86– and my first international– India Vs. Sri Lanka in ’87. Writes Bharat Sundaresan for Indian Express:
The Prince of Udaipur leaps in joy as his team vanquishes yet another opponent with consummate ease while not far away, the Yuvraj of Baroda sits morosely, wondering about what could have been. [..]
[P]icturesque Moti Baug ground in Baroda offers a regal blast-from-the-past, a ‘royal tent’. It’s from here that the Gaekwads have lent their gracious presence for cricket matches during the last century.
“The tent used to be much bigger, but unfortunately it got eaten up by termites. I have grown up watching cricket from here,” says Samarjitsingh, presently a member of the Baroda Cricket Association.
Later, the prince of Rajasthan says:
“I am sure the souls of the past greats from my state, including my grandfather, will be popping champagne bottles as we speak”
Not in this dry state they won’t. Even souls can’t drink in Gujarat. Unless they’re considered other-worldly foreigners, in which case they can show their passport and get a permit.
Deep Backward Point 