Good night of cricket!

Well my friends the time has come
To raise the rool and have some fun
Throw away the work to be done
Let the music play on...
These Lionel Richie lines from the cut All Night Long seem to sum up the mood of the times. With the World Cup fever having caught on, restaurants, cafes and coffee bars have made fab plans to get their customers the perfect 'cricketing' experience.
Although there are some days to go before India takes guard, fans are thrilled with the sheer thought of watching these late night offerings.Mukesh Shah, a 33-year-old office goer, says, "We have decided to meet up at a cafe and catch up on cricket on their huge screens. I just hope they keep the cafe open, for the match won't end till late."
Of course, keeping the cafes and restaurants open till late needs permission and that is what most owners are busy getting. Says Pinoy Pandya, owner of a cafe who has already planned to get the 'pub feeling' going, "We've got the permission.
The only thing that we have been told by the authorities is to make sure that there isn't any parking problem," says Pandya.
Twenty-four-hour cafes too are the ones to gain the most, considering they don't need any special permission. Says V K Prasad, general manager of a well known city hotel, "We will be setting up one large screen and would be making significant changes in our theme.
As for managing the late night crowd and deadline, I don't think we would be facing any problem."
However, not all are that lucky. Sandeep Dawer, owner of a well known chain of restaurants in Surat, says, "We will follow the 11 pm deadline as we have to take into account, the fact that our staff retires by 11:30. Organising the screening beyond that doesn't make much sense."
Ankur Gupta, manager operations of a cafe chain has a different thought. "We are going to replay the recorded matches all through the day," says Gupta.
Also the cricket mania is such that officials too don't want to be party poopers. Says a senior official from Ahmedabad traffic department, "There have been no such applications for late night permissions.
The official deadline is till 11 pm and unless these restaurants are in open space we can't stop them from putting up television screens and watching matches in small gatherings. Also, we don't want to spoil the party. After all, they are just watching cricket."
kanpur.times@timesgroup.com