In the sweltering streets of Mumbai last night, the traffic was backed up for miles as Arvin Parab offered an upbeat assessment of the game ahead.
“We are definitely going to win,” smiled the schoolteacher. “Our boys have prepared nicely and they have got spirit. It’s a balanced team.”
Surrounded by a growing throng of smiling, jostling cricket fans on the corner of Marine Drive, just a stone’s throw from the entrance to Wankhede Stadium, Mr Parab seemed to sum up the expectations of 1.2 billion of his countrymen.
Despite a heavy security presence in this chaotic city of 14 million people, a carnival atmosphere has prevailed as Indians, still flush with pride at their victory against Pakistan on Wednesday, appeared convinced that today’s World Cup final against Sri Lanka is theirs for the taking. There was also a sense that this, more than any other tournament in recent memory, was about something more: the transcendent power of sport and a hope that it might just help to lay some of the sub-continent’s old wounds to rest.
“Let bygones be bygones,” said Sanjay Soni, 22, a student. “This is . . . a chance to rectify the relations between different countries.”
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Mr Parab said: “There should be more dialogue and no bitterness.”
Wednesday’s game marked a thaw in relations between Pakistan and India after they were thrust into the deep-freeze by a 2008 terror attack just a few hundred yards away from the stadium where today’s game will be played. However, security forces are taking no chances. As President Patil and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa flew in last night to join today’s 37,500 capacity crowd, alongside thousands of politicians and the cream of India’s business and entertainment elite, 4,000 police were on duty around the stadium alone. “We are overdoing it but it is better to err on the side of caution,” said Arup Patnaik, Mumbai’s police commissioner.
With anti-aircraft guns placed discretely around the stadium, the backstreets of South Mumbai swirled with armoured personnel carriers, armed guards, uniformed and plainclothes police as helicopters whirred overhead.
“Our ships and aircraft are on continuous patrol off the coasts of Gujarat and Maharashtra,” said a spokesman for the Indian Navy.
“Fast attack craft, patrol vessels and fast interceptor craft have been deployed to secure Mumbai’s shores.”
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It is a ring of force that will help to protect the likes of Mukesh Ambani, said to be India’s richest man, who will watch the game with his family from a corporate box. Two weeks ago the die-hard cricket fan skipped a dinner with Warren Buffett, the American financier, so that he could watch India’s quarter-final clash with Australia.
Among several Bollywood stars expected to attend are the leading man Sunil Shetty and the action star Abhishek Bachchan. In contrast, with only a handful of tickets being offered to the general public — and many of them marked up to astronomical prices for resale by black market touts, most ordinary Mumbaikars are planning to enjoy the game at home. Others will join friends at parks such as Shivaji Park Gymkhana, where giant screens have been erected.
Yesterday, Mumbai’s illegal bookkeepers were also doing a roaring trade, working the city’s streets and apartment buildings to drum up business for what is expected to be a bumper payday.
“I have 1,000 rupees (£14) riding on the game,” said one punter in the city’s Mahalaxmi district. “Sri Lanka are very strong but India will win I am sure.”
Assuming that they do, what next? “Everyone is going to be very happy. There will be fireworks and a lot of shouting,” said Shankar Vemeula, a driver.