Cricket World Cup Opens to Empty Stadiums
The National Sport of India is Cricket. This is undisputed and the country loves it’s cricket so much that in the last couple of decades India has become a real powerhouse for the sport – not just in the quality of it’s players and teams, but economically and financially it has literally become the center of the cricket world. This year India is hosting the One Day International Cricket World Cup, which is the 3rd most watched sporting event in the world behind only the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics…
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Which is why I was absolutely stunned to see the world cup opener the other day between England and New Zealand (Finalists of the last World Cup) kick off with an almost empty stadium. The cricket stadiums in India are massive and over the years I’ve become accustomed to watching India's cricket matches with overflowing crowds and international players have often commented that the crowds in India can be so loud that they can’t even hear each other on the field. So what’s up with the World Cup crowds so far?
It wasn’t just the opener either. Yesterday I had a look at Afghanistan vs Bangladesh and South Africa vs Sri Lanka...both of those matches had near empty stadiums too. I’m shocked and really disappointed. There is a big story here and I’m not sure what it is. Mainstream reporters are suggesting it’s an administrative bungle and the tickets went on sale late. Allegedly there have been tickets made free for people to try and fill up those stadiums, but this is a massive missed opportunity for the international powerhouse of cricket.
The last two World Cups were hosted by England (2019) and Australia (2015) and despite having much smaller cricket grounds, the crowds were most definitely bigger. I know that a lot of people like to watch cricket from the comfort of their own home these days but if a host nation can’t turn out some crowds then do they really deserve to host? At the risk of upsetting any Indian fans reading my blog (yes, there is 1 or 2) I have to ask that question. India and Australia play their opening match tonight and I’ll be expecting it to be packed to the rafters. Hopefully this disturbing trend of empty stadiums can be corrected to save the host nation from embarrassment.
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Today you will see some overcrowded chepauk Chennai stadium. India vs Aus is going to be thriller and supporters from bothe the cricketing nation will fill up the entire stadium..
Yep. Much better crowd for the India vs Australia game. Hopefully we will see more crowd support for the other matches too.
It depends ...but own country mat he's will get a full support
You know I never really watched cricket or even understood it but it seems to really be gaining in popularity and I'm now curious to check it out. Perhaps all of these other American sports are getting tired and boring to us lol
If you're going to check it out, the world cup is the time to do it. It only runs every 4 years and is always a great tournament.
This is great information as far as sporting entertainment is concerned. I'm sure the cricket will witness many spectators coming onboard to watch the match.
I think this is why Indians mostly focus on cricket because it is their national sport including Pakistan too but not in my country
Nice post!
That’s ridiculous. How can it be that empty?
I wish I knew. We will find out soon if this is going to be the trend for the whole tournament...
If cricket is a very important sport for India
Interestingly, when I googled about why Cricket crowds were low?, there was an answer from 4 years ago...
Yes, that's interesting. Test Matches can be very dour though so having lower crowds there is expected. I think there is definitely less enthusiasm to see non-Indian teams but I wouldn't be surprised if they messed up the ticket pricing / sales too.
It is rightly said that the power that is in money is not in anything else. Asia Cup table water was with Pakistan and India did not come to play the match inside Pakistan and Pakistan has to go to play the match inside India. But sadly, the World Cup is a big one there is an event, but the sad thing is that we did not see people inside the stadium at all and there were no people inside the stadium. The stadium was full as many matches have been played here inside Pakistan.