Empty stands greet World Cup opener at Modi stadium; fans slam Jay Shah, BCCI
During TV commentary, some of the former cricketers including Ravi Shastri said it would have been a full stadium if the World Cup opener had featured India.
It was not a good sight as the ICC World Cup 2023 opened in Ahmedabad in front of empty stands at the world’s largest cricket venue – Narendra Modi Stadium.
As last edition’s finalists England and New Zealand are playing the World Cup 2023 opening match today (October 5), the 1.32-lakh capacity was not even 10 per cent full. This led to cricket fans lashing out the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its secretary Jay Shah.
According to a report in England's Daily Mail, only 4,000 seats were filled up when the England vs New Zealand World Cup game began in Ahmedabad. The report’s headline read, “The world is not watching”.
When you log on to the official World Cup ticket-selling website, there are still tickets available to buy. However, 80 per cent of the stadium’s tickets are not available – either sold or not put on online sale.
Indian cricket fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their ire at the BCCI and Shah. A user demanded Shah’s resignation. “Jay Shah, BCCI Secretary responsible for ICC CWC 2023 could not even make sure that even 50% of the stadium in his home state is filled in the opener of one of the biggest tournaments hosted by India. Have some shame Jay Shah, resign if you can't manage properly, this is looking like a warmup match,” an X user named Roshan Rai said.
Some blamed the BCCI for starting the sale of tickets late while others sympathised with people for not coming to the stadium on a hot day and expected people to turn up after office hours in the evening.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag suggested tickets be provided for free for schools and colleges for non-India World Cup games.
“Hopefully after office hours, there should be more people coming in. But for games not featuring Bharat, there should be free tickets for school and college children. With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup game and players get to play in fron of a full stadium . #CWC23 (sic),” Sehwag posted on X.
Empty seats are seen during the ICC World Cup 2023 opening game between England and New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday (October 5). Photo: PTI
During TV commentary, some of the former cricketers including Ravi Shastri said it would have been a full stadium if the World Cup opener had featured India. There have been instances whe the host nation plays the World Cup opening game. In 2019, hosts England played opener, and it was the same in 2015 when Australia was involved in the opening match. In 2011 too, hosts India faced co-hosts Bangladesh in Dhaka.
The Gujarat BJP unit had issued 40,000 free tickets to the match for women. But there was no sign of that many people till the 38th over of the England batting innings. The game began at 2 PM and New Zealand's stand-in captain Tom Lathan won the toss and sent the defending champions in.
See some of the reactions from fans over empty stands for the World Cup 2023 opener.