How late is too late? How bad the ticketing system should be to drive fans away? The world’s richest cricket board BCCI and the all-powerful ICC would be scratching their heads after Narendra Modi Stadium sported a deserted look for the ENG vs NZ grand ICC ODI World Cup opener. Hardly 5,000 people turned up for the clash at 2 PM at a stadium that can host 1,30,000 people.
Even wooing fans with free mineral water or free tickets for students, women did not help ease the situation.
But one should really ask ICC who is to be blamed here? Tickets were released just a month before the World Cup started. The schedule was changed as BCCI failed to foresee the clashing of festival dates. That left a bitter taste in fans’ mouths as many could not make arrangements on such short notice. To make things worse, a poor ticketing system also cost the two powerful boards. As a result, there were hardly fans at the stands for ENG vs NZ WC opener.
Reasons for poor World Cup crowd
- Scheduling mismanagement
- Ticketing mismanagement
- Heat
- ODI: a failing format
Scheduling
The 2015 and 2019 World Cup had the schedule released at least six months before the tournament. But BCCI failed in its first endeavour of hosting the tournament all alone. The schedule was released only 100 days before the World Cup. But it was changed after a month. Those who started reserving tickets and hotels had to abandon the idea due to uncertainty.
Ticket mismanagement
Without ticket, there is no confirmed travel plan and that is where the BCCI failed miserably. Only 45 days before the tournament start, tickets were released. And it was done poorly. Without any digital ticketing system and change in schedule, things turned out to be worse.
Fans would need to book tickets on BookMyShow and they will need to wait for the tickets to be delivered at their home. If they can’t, they have to redeem the online tickets from the stadium box office. All these in 2023 when movie tickets are also based on QR codes.
And then, BookMyShow once again failed to deliver. If IPL wasn’t bad enough, BMS, ICC’s ticketing partner offered a horrible experience. With technical glitches, and failing servers, some fans were stunned with the 6-year waiting period in the online queue. And the re-release of tickets did not solve the matter either.
However, a quick look at the BookMyShow website shows a lot of tickets still available for ENG vs NZ WC opener and other non-India games.
Heat
With afternoon games with a 2 PM start, fans were not amused. In Ahmedabad, the temperature is soaring at 35 degrees Celsius and above, making it difficult for fans on a weekday. However, more fans are expected to turn up as the sun goes down.
ODI: A failing format?
In Asia Cup opener in Multan between Pakistan and Nepal, the stadium sported a deserted look. Things were not great in Colombo or Kandy either as most stadiums were empty for most of the clashes including India vs Pakistan match.
While ICC and the BCCI are banking on India vs Pakistan match to revive the dying format, it’s fair to assume that ODIs do not hold importance among fans anymore. Rather, it’s T20 format that has taken over. But ENG vs NZ suffers with people not interested.
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