- Monday, November 25, 2024
Many blamed the late sale of tickets as a major reason for low turnout.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE 2023 cricket World Cup kicked off at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Thursday (5) when reigning champions England took on New Zealand but to the utter dismay of the fans, a vast section of the venue remained empty as the two teams took the field.
The Narendra Modi Stadium is the world’s biggest cricket stadium with a sitting capacity of 130,000.
Fans lashed out at the organisers, particularly the Indian cricket board, over such a subdued response to the mega event and while some said the tournament was badly planned with no opening ceremony, others were of the opinion that some other venue, like the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, would have seen a better turnout.
There were also opinions that the attendance was thin due to the fact that it was a weekday and due to heat.
While there was a presence of barely 10,000 people at the start of the match, by the time the sun stopped beating down hard, it increased to around 15 to 17,000.
An official from the Gujarat Cricket Association had told PTI in days leading up to the game that they expect about 50,000-60,000 fans but it remains to be seen if the viewers were at all excited by the prospect of watching last edition’s finalists.
There were also reports of 30,000-40,000 women from the host city being given free tickets to watch the game but that did not seem to be the case for the large part of the first innings of the game as empty stands told the story.
According to New Zealand website Stuff, “The Cricket World Cup got off to an embarrassing start for organisers on Thursday with swathes of empty seats for the tournament opener between England and New Zealand.
“The venues and dates for World Cup fixtures have repeatedly changed, rendering it impossible for locals – let alone travelling fans – to plan ahead.”
Some of the fixtures at the tournament, including the high-profile India-Pakistan clash in Ahmedabad on October 14, were altered well after the itinerary was released owing to security reasons as the original date of October 15 coincided with the first day of Navratri, a major Hindu festival, which made the local police raise concerns over the arrangements.
It also said that the tickets for the mega event went on sale only 41 days before the tournament started and even then, people had difficulties in getting access with reports of the website crashing. It also mentioned that in 2019, tickets for the World Cup went on sale a year before the first game which was between England and South Africa.
The attendance turned better towards the evening.
On the ground, however, the lack of enough supporters in the stands did not affect the proceedings. New Zealand captain Tom Latham won the toss and asked England to bat. Despite having a good start, none of the England batters went on to score a big score and the Three Lions could manage 282 for 9 wickets in 50 overs.
Joe Root top scored with 77 while captain Jos Buttler made 43.
For New Zealand, pacer Matt Henry took three wickets while spinners Mitchell Santner took two and Glenn Philips one.
Here are some reactions that the fans came up with seeing the less attendance on the first day of the cricket World Cup 2023:
when was the last time a cricket world cup opened with…empty stands? ?
— Venkat Ananth (@venkatananth) October 5, 2023
Liftoff in the Cricket World Cup – shame about all the empty seats pic.twitter.com/eNvuzHoWtr
— Tim Wigmore (@timwig) October 5, 2023
LOL this is just embarrassing at this point. Toss for the opening game of the WC happening in front of a completely empty stadium pic.twitter.com/qyCGV3uLpc
— yang goi (@GongR1ght) October 5, 2023
Maybe it wouldn't have been this embarassing if you hadn't started ticket sales at the last minute repulsing fans who wanted to travel from NZ/ENG, hoarding tickets and then giving them away for free as a way to save face at the last minute.
You can build the biggest stadium.… pic.twitter.com/6WO7UCdrTJ
— Manya (@CSKian716) October 5, 2023
