Crowds

[flibbertyjibber]

Considering we constantly hear how Indian fans love their cricket the crowds have been piss poor so far in the competition with grounds barely half full, very poor show if you ask me.

Is it cost, or just bad organisation by BCCI?

Being so far away it is difficult to know but the fact is the half empty stadiums do look stupid in the games major showpiece. I presume tv money is more important than filling the grounds to India.

 

[benchmark00]

Always get the feeling that Indians don't like following sport, they just like following India.

 

[Spark]

Not too concerned myself. So long as there's a decent atmosphere it's fine.

 

[Daemon]

Always get the feeling that Indians don't like following sport, they just like following India.

Yeah, very true. Although this has got to do mostly with the fact that Indianz r de best at cricket

 

[slip]

Not too concerned myself. So long as there's a decent atmosphere it's fine.

OK crowd for the AUS v NZ game, creating a decent atmosphere.

 

[Shri]

Ticket prices are ridiculous. The cheapest tickets always get sold out but they cover only a small portion in the stands. The price of the next level of tickets is 4 times bigger than the cheapest tickets. Not worth the money to go to a minnow game. The Indian games are sold out afaik. The others aren't worth wasting money on.

 

[vcs]

I don't understand what the problem is TBH, none of the games in India have involved the hosts so far and from what I can pick up on TV, the atmosphere and response is better than what it'd have been in any other country. Has everybody forgotten the empty stands at the Caribbean in 2007 already? No country fills 50K stadiums when their team isn't playing. Definitely not on weekdays.

benchmark : I'm pretty sure Indian cricket fans watch a lot more international cricket not involving India than fans of any other country. The main reason for this is that FC cricket in India is of a low standard and not properly marketed/televised.

 

[Debris]

Ticket prices are ridiculous. The cheapest tickets always get sold out but they cover only a small portion in the stands. The price of the next level of tickets is 4 times bigger than the cheapest tickets. Not worth the money to go to a minnow game. The Indian games are sold out afaik. The others aren't worth wasting money on.

Shades of 2007? I assume it still makes more money than anywhere else due to TV rights.

 

[Mike5181]

I don't understand what the problem is TBH, none of the games in India have involved the hosts so far and from what I can pick up on TV, the atmosphere and response is better than what it'd have been in any other country. Has everybody forgotten the empty stands at the Caribbean in 2007 already? No country fills 50K stadiums when their team isn't playing. Definitely not on weekdays.

benchmark : I'm pretty sure Indian cricket fans watch a lot more international cricket not involving India than fans of any other country. The main reason for this is that FC cricket in India is of a low standard and not properly marketed/televised.

I don't know to be honest. You will see the less competitive nations fans like West Indies, New Zealand, Ireland, Zimbabwe etc have another team they semi support or have a more general/neutral attitude to other teams/players. I have found especially with the recent decline in NZ cricket that watching teams like Australia is more enjoyable now that the spice has largely left our games. I no longer loathe their players like Hussey/Watson & co and in fact some of them are among my favourites now. Just enjoy watching quality cricket now.

 

[vcs]

I don't know to be honest. You will see the less competitive nations fans like West Indies, New Zealand, Ireland, Zimbabwe etc have another team they semi support or have a more general/neutral attitude to other teams/players. I have found especially with the recent decline in NZ cricket that watching teams like Australia is more enjoyable now that the spice has largely left our games. I no longer loathe their players like Hussey/Watson & co and in fact some of them are among my favourites now. Just enjoy watching quality cricket now.

Yeah, but would they make the effort to go over to the ground when their team isn't involved? Most grounds have had a fair amount of attendance for games not involving India from what I can make out so far. And you'll always get plenty of noise.

 

[Spark]

I don't know to be honest. You will see the less competitive nations fans like West Indies, New Zealand, Ireland, Zimbabwe etc have another team they semi support or have a more general/neutral attitude to other teams/players. I have found especially with the recent decline in NZ cricket that watching teams like Australia is more enjoyable now that the spice has largely left our games. I no longer loathe their players like Hussey/Watson & co and in fact some of them are among my favourites now. Just enjoy watching quality cricket now.

 

[Blaze 18]

India have had what, two non-minnow matches so far, right ? The crowds were okay for both of these matches (South Africa vs West Indies, Australia vs New Zealand). You really can't expect fans to turn up for Kenya vs New Zealand, or Australia vs Zimbabwe.

 

[GotSpin]

Indian fans only come to watch Indian players

 

[vcs]

Indian fans only come to watch Indian players

Nonsense.

 

[GotSpin]

I don't think it's unfair to suggest that the vast majority of the Indian cricketing public only care to watch their own players.

 

[vcs]

I don't think it's unfair to suggest that the vast majority of the Indian cricketing public only care to watch their own players.

Definitely not. But which country does that not apply to?

 

[Daemon]

Is there any place to get the actual attendance for these games rather than judging by looking at the amount of people in the stands? And tbh why would people turn up for games like Aus v Zimb or Nz v Kenya? On a weekday that too.

 

[GotSpin]

Definitely not. But which country does that not apply to?

Wasn't intending to suggest that it's a phenomenon belonging solely to India, but rather provide an explanation for the rather poor crowds

I do, however, always get the feeling that in an India v. contest, Indian crowds come solely to support their team and not enjoy the quality of the opposition. Just a general feeling though so I might be off.

 

[Nate]

Nonsense.

Definitely not.

 

[Teja.]

While I don't think the issue is of particular concern, My explanation would be:-

Basically the average Indian makes about $68(PCI) a month which is many many times lower than most cricket countries, hence the masses cannot afford tickets during the WC, nor can the students. Most of the office-going Internet surfing junta would prefer to watch a torrent/tv at work and get paid whilst still watching/cbf going to the stadium after coming home late from work.

Still I think stadiums will be start getting filled soon.