That empty feeling at the World Cup
Vast swathes of vacant seats have been the norm in games that don’t feature India.
“As we approach the World Cup, I would humbly like to let all my friends know to not request me for tickets at all through the tournament. Enjoy from your homes please.” Reposting the Instagram message from her husband Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma cheekily added: “Please don’t request me to help if your messages get unanswered. Thank you for understanding.”
Given how Kohli and KL Rahul shepherded India to victory after a wobbly start against Australia, the reception India got at Chennai airport on Monday and in Delhi two days later, it is possible that Kolhi and Sharma’s request may go unheeded. That’s what friends are for, right?
Forget the cricketer-actor couple, any sport journalist in India will tell you how people who had given them the widest of berths, and vice versa, get warm and fuzzy whenever the cricket caravan rolls into town. More so if it’s a World Cup game featuring India. Explains why India are travelling 15,304km, the most in this 10-team competition by over 5000km, to play nine games in nine cities.
But for games that don’t feature India, interest is tepid if the first nine games are taken into account. Largely empty bleachers have been the norm at the toss; the crowd improving as the game progressed but even then, stadia have looked half-full. The opener between England New Zealand, who had produced a final for the ages in 2019, in Ahmedabad was worse.
Why is this happening in a land where cricket is more than a sport and at a tournament which when it first came to India in 1987 had the Hindi film industry, our other major obsession, wondering whether it should pause new releases? A country which, according to an HT report, could increase the International Olympic Committee’s current broadcast revenue of $31m to $130-$260m once cricket is part of the Olympics.
Unimaginative scheduling, cricket fatigue, the format being an aberration, the stadium experience being poorer than, say, in England, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies, and technology making viewing an immersive experience without being in the rafters are some of the reasons.
“We live in a time-impoverished world that is increasingly characterised by hybrid forms of consumption,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at SKEMA Business School. One day can be too long for Generation Z (those born in the late 1990s or early 2000s) at a time when T20 has superseded Test and ODIs in popularity, he said.
The weather –Dharamsala is an outlier among venues that have hosted games so far – too has played a part, said ad-film guru Prahlad Kakkar. “At home you can watch the games on a big TV screen, and it is bloody hot in October if you go to the stadium.”
In 2019, transport for valid ticket holders was arranged for games in Southampton and Nottingham. During the 2022 World T20, food kiosks at the park outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground had a stall supervised by a Masterchef winner. In India, parking is a problem and comfortable, and affordable, public transport a chimera at many cricket theatres where food is usually overpriced and toilets overrun.
So, following games on mobiles, tablets and television can be a preferred option for many. India’s opener against Australia had over 1 crore viewers on Hotstar, the official streaming platform, and on Tuesday, the Pakistan-Sri Lanka game touched 75 lakh when Abdullah Shafique got to his century.
Being bombarded with cricket is another reason for empty stadia, said Kakkar. Consider this: Australia tours of India bookend this World Cup in a year that England came visiting.
That makes this edition different from 2019, said Deep Dasgupta. “One reason why the 2019 World Cup was well received was that in England, cricket can only happen for a few summer months,” said the pundit and former India wicket-keeper. “Also, the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Caribbean diaspora comprise a big part of those who come to the stadium.”
Speaking on television, former internationals Ravi Shastri and Michael Atherton said India should have played the opening game. “Crowds are looking very poor at the World Cup... surely, we should be giving tickets away to make sure the stands are full,” former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote on X.
To that Kakkar said starting in Ahmedabad was an error. “Gujarat doesn’t have so many cricket followers on the ground. Gujarat has a lot of India followers on the ground, but not cricket as a whole so why would you have the opening match there? It is a stadium with 1,30,000 (1.32 lakh), how you are going to fill it? Only an India-Pakistan match is going to fill that stadium.”
That game should have gone to a traditional venue such as Mumbai or Chennai, he said. What also works for centres such as Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru or Delhi is the strong ticket distribution network through clubs that the state associations have.
But even at other venues, shouldn’t the lure of a World Cup be enough, like with the men’s and women’s football World Cup, tennis Grand Slams or golf majors?
“There may be an inconvenient truth hidden in this – that cricket is neither Premier League nor NBA. For GenZ (and Gen Alpha to come), the sport may not be exciting enough,” said Chadwick. Generation Alpha is the term for those born between 2010 and 2025.
Asked if empty seats will affect the brand of the ODI World Cup, a former India player, who did not wish to be named, said: “If India don’t win this time, God help the format.”
“As we approach the World Cup, I would humbly like to let all my friends know to not request me for tickets at all through the tournament. Enjoy from your homes please.” Reposting the Instagram message from her husband Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma cheekily added: “Please don’t request me to help if your messages get unanswered. Thank you for understanding.”
Given how Kohli and KL Rahul shepherded India to victory after a wobbly start against Australia, the reception India got at Chennai airport on Monday and in Delhi two days later, it is possible that Kolhi and Sharma’s request may go unheeded. That’s what friends are for, right?
Forget the cricketer-actor couple, any sport journalist in India will tell you how people who had given them the widest of berths, and vice versa, get warm and fuzzy whenever the cricket caravan rolls into town. More so if it’s a World Cup game featuring India. Explains why India are travelling 15,304km, the most in this 10-team competition by over 5000km, to play nine games in nine cities.
But for games that don’t feature India, interest is tepid if the first nine games are taken into account. Largely empty bleachers have been the norm at the toss; the crowd improving as the game progressed but even then, stadia have looked half-full. The opener between England New Zealand, who had produced a final for the ages in 2019, in Ahmedabad was worse.
Why is this happening in a land where cricket is more than a sport and at a tournament which when it first came to India in 1987 had the Hindi film industry, our other major obsession, wondering whether it should pause new releases? A country which, according to an HT report, could increase the International Olympic Committee’s current broadcast revenue of $31m to $130-$260m once cricket is part of the Olympics.
Unimaginative scheduling, cricket fatigue, the format being an aberration, the stadium experience being poorer than, say, in England, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies, and technology making viewing an immersive experience without being in the rafters are some of the reasons.
“We live in a time-impoverished world that is increasingly characterised by hybrid forms of consumption,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at SKEMA Business School. One day can be too long for Generation Z (those born in the late 1990s or early 2000s) at a time when T20 has superseded Test and ODIs in popularity, he said.
The weather –Dharamsala is an outlier among venues that have hosted games so far – too has played a part, said ad-film guru Prahlad Kakkar. “At home you can watch the games on a big TV screen, and it is bloody hot in October if you go to the stadium.”
In 2019, transport for valid ticket holders was arranged for games in Southampton and Nottingham. During the 2022 World T20, food kiosks at the park outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground had a stall supervised by a Masterchef winner. In India, parking is a problem and comfortable, and affordable, public transport a chimera at many cricket theatres where food is usually overpriced and toilets overrun.
So, following games on mobiles, tablets and television can be a preferred option for many. India’s opener against Australia had over 1 crore viewers on Hotstar, the official streaming platform, and on Tuesday, the Pakistan-Sri Lanka game touched 75 lakh when Abdullah Shafique got to his century.
Being bombarded with cricket is another reason for empty stadia, said Kakkar. Consider this: Australia tours of India bookend this World Cup in a year that England came visiting.
That makes this edition different from 2019, said Deep Dasgupta. “One reason why the 2019 World Cup was well received was that in England, cricket can only happen for a few summer months,” said the pundit and former India wicket-keeper. “Also, the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Caribbean diaspora comprise a big part of those who come to the stadium.”
Speaking on television, former internationals Ravi Shastri and Michael Atherton said India should have played the opening game. “Crowds are looking very poor at the World Cup... surely, we should be giving tickets away to make sure the stands are full,” former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote on X.
To that Kakkar said starting in Ahmedabad was an error. “Gujarat doesn’t have so many cricket followers on the ground. Gujarat has a lot of India followers on the ground, but not cricket as a whole so why would you have the opening match there? It is a stadium with 1,30,000 (1.32 lakh), how you are going to fill it? Only an India-Pakistan match is going to fill that stadium.”
That game should have gone to a traditional venue such as Mumbai or Chennai, he said. What also works for centres such as Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru or Delhi is the strong ticket distribution network through clubs that the state associations have.
But even at other venues, shouldn’t the lure of a World Cup be enough, like with the men’s and women’s football World Cup, tennis Grand Slams or golf majors?
“There may be an inconvenient truth hidden in this – that cricket is neither Premier League nor NBA. For GenZ (and Gen Alpha to come), the sport may not be exciting enough,” said Chadwick. Generation Alpha is the term for those born between 2010 and 2025.
Asked if empty seats will affect the brand of the ODI World Cup, a former India player, who did not wish to be named, said: “If India don’t win this time, God help the format.”
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