Rachin Ravindra: From the sublime to the ridiculously sublime
A blissfully sleep-deprived attempt at a newsletter ($)
Let’s start with the elephant in the empty stadium before we get to the good stuff. The picture below should be an utter embarrassment to anybody involved with staging this tournament. Regardless of how big the stadium is, regardless of how many millions the broadcast rights have sold for, and regardless of how many thousands might have been ushered into the ground late to give the impression of a crowd, nothing spells contempt for the casual fan quite like the sight of a tournament starting in front of 120,000 empty seats.
It was so lame - reportedly a “lavish” Bollywood-style opening ceremony was canned just days before the tournament started - that the tin-foil hat wearers had cause to think the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was happily sabotaging its own event to hasten the death of ODI cricket and clear up future calendar space for an expanded IPL.
The absence of the home side in the opener was strange, but the biggest factor was the inexcusable lateness of the confirmed schedule and ticketing.
From Al Jazeera:
Match tickets for the general public went on sale in a staggered manner only from August 25, a mere 41 days before the opening match. And the process to book tickets was far from hassle-free – fans had to first register to be able to book tickets and then wait for hours before they could have a chance to buy them…
Late changes to the fixture list also led to inflated accommodation costs, with prices for some hotel rooms in Ahmedabad soaring by more than 12 times the usual cost, with rooms as expensive as 53,000 rupees ($637) a night in three-star hotels.
Meanwhile, those lucky enough to get their hands on match tickets can also face huge prices. The cost of World Cup tickets starts from 499 rupees ($6) and goes up to 40,000 rupees ($481) on the official ticketing platform. The prices in the resale market are exorbitant, with the most expensive ticket for India vs Pakistan selling for 25 million rupees ($300,545) on Viagogo, a multinational ticket exchange and ticket resale brand.
Now the juice!
Those that did turn up got to watch a stonkingly good New Zealand performance.
While the Black Caps performing well in a World Cup match should have ceased to become a surprise, there are elements of this performance that were jaw-dropping.