[if gte mso 9]>
Swagat, an Indian restaurant on Northwest 21st and Lovejoy, hosted
a viewing party for the 2011 Cricket World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka.
About 20 guests drummed loudly on the tables as the match got underway Saturday morning.
"I have watched almost all of the matches in this World Cup. I set my body clock so that I can get up and stay awake," said Raiyo Aspandiar, an engineer at Intel in Hillsboro. "They say there are two religions in India, cricket and Bollywood."
The Cricket World Cup final is one of the world's most watched
sporting events. Like its soccer
counterpart, the Cricket World Cup is held every four years and 2011 marked the
first time two Asian countries competed in a final. According
to the India Cultural Association of Portland, almost 10,000 Indians live in the
area.
The small crowd at Swagat was not your typical beer-swilling collection of sports fans.
Some spectators at Swagat refilled their cups of chai five or six times throughout the night. "It's not like 'crack open a six pack' and watch the game," said Miten Bhatia, a US Bank branch manager who moved to the United States from Mumbai in the fall of 1998. "A lot of families watch cricket. I remember watching it with my grandmother."
WWeek 2015