Is India really cricket-crazy?

[Willow_on_fire]

atm its hot:giggle:and to add to that punjabis are not too are not too much into techniques and all.for most of us,sehwag is always better than dravid bcoz hes more entertaining. even then i was dissapointed with the turnout though:((

Agreed....more ppl should've come to see SRT's feat...:((

[Dinx - the Jinx]

First of all... the heading of this thread is not all that correct. The cricket craziness of this country cannot be measured by the number of people coming to watch the match in the stadium. For that you need to look at the TRP Ratings, the going rate of Advertisements on TVduring cricket matches, the no. of cricket related programmes and ads that are aired on TV, the marketing reach of cricket players etc. Traditionally different parts of India have had different levels of knowledge and interest in the game... Although cricketrs and experts from other countries say that Indian public is very knowledgeable about cricket, it holds good only with the people of Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and to an extent Kolkata (Kolkattans are passionate about their cricket and not very knowledgeable). The rest of the places where cricket is played i.e Hyderabad, Mohali, Nagpur, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Gwalior, Guwahati, Indore etc... have cricket crazy people who like to see sixers and fours and dont give a **** to an engrossing spell of fast bowling from Ishant or spin bowling from Bajji if they do not pick a wicket in that over... Simply put, the purists who love test match cricket are all in the 4 cities I mentioned above and those are the ones who take 3 days off (since sat/sun is anyway holiday), buy season tickets, throng the stadium and sometimes watch even the borest of boring sessions with the hope that there will be some pure test match magic that will be in display. If you ask a lassi drinking punjabi from mohali or a gujju businessman from Ahmedabad to go watch a test match. the response yo'll get is very obvious.. Kya beta.. test match mein kya mazza hai? So, dont expect to see a lot of crowd for test matches in the northern part of India (except Delhi). However that doesnt mean that there is no interest for those games. Millions of people are following the matches on TV at their homes / shops / workplaces and when TV is not there on internet and on mobile phones... I went to all 5 days of the Bangalore test match. On the first day of the Mohali test, as it looked likely that Sachin will get to his record, I bunked office for the afternoon session , went home and watched him go past the record. I hada afriend who came from Chennai to watch the sat and sun action in the Blore test. So, the craziness is there, but in different flavours... I like watching the test match more - cos its like a holiday... like a picnic. Like a 5 day pilgrimage.. to wake up early in the morning, pack ur lunch and whatver snacks you want, enter the stadium without much rush, spend the whole day there... sometimes even catch up with an afternoon nap, when the proceeding gets dull, come back in the evening, watch highlights on TV, goto sleep to get up next day morning to repeat the ritual. Now I feel that watching one day cricket at stadium is more hectic and not so interesting. There will be a huge crowd, resulting in long queues, once you are in the stands and got ur seat, cant move your bums - else your seat will be gone. There is an ODI here in november against England. having already spent close to 5K on the India / Aus match, I'm thinking whether I would really want to go see the match against Pommies. For me the Test series against Australia was bigger than the meaningless one day matches. May be there is a different set of spectators who may feel the exact opposite and may buy the tickets at a very very high price and go see the match... Its just that different ppl like different flavors but the underlying sport is the same, CRICKET and Indians are truly crazy about it. My thoughts on why people did not turn out in big numbers at Mohali are 1. Except members stand - rest of the stands are uncovered, which means you have to sit in scorching heat 2. Ticket prices were very high. Just out of curiosity, I visited the kyazoonga.com website that was selling the tickets for this match. The lowest priced ticket was 1000 per day. Whereas Blore had options starting at 250 an there were 400, 600, 1000, 1500. 3. Punjabis are not cricket purists. They may not like to sit whole day and watch 3 sessions of 30 overs each and still go home without kknowing who won the match...

[Lord]

First of all... the heading of this thread is not all that correct. The cricket craziness of this country cannot be measured by the number of people coming to watch the match in the stadium. For that you need to look at the TRP Ratings, the going rate of Advertisements on TVduring cricket matches, the no. of cricket related programmes and ads that are aired on TV, the marketing reach of cricket players etc. Traditionally different parts of India have had different levels of knowledge and interest in the game... Although cricketrs and experts from other countries say that Indian public is very knowledgeable about cricket, it holds good only with the people of Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and to an extent Kolkata (Kolkattans are passionate about their cricket and not very knowledgeable). The rest of the places where cricket is played i.e Hyderabad, Mohali, Nagpur, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Goa, Kochi, Gwalior, Guwahati, Indore etc... have cricket crazy people who like to see sixers and fours and dont give a **** to an engrossing spell of fast bowling from Ishant or spin bowling from Bajji if they do not pick a wicket in that over... Simply put, the purists who love test match cricket are all in the 4 cities I mentioned above and those are the ones who take 3 days off (since sat/sun is anyway holiday), buy season tickets, throng the stadium and sometimes watch even the borest of boring sessions with the hope that there will be some pure test match magic that will be in display. If you ask a lassi drinking punjabi from mohali or a gujju businessman from Ahmedabad to go watch a test match. the response yo'll get is very obvious.. Kya beta.. test match mein kya mazza hai? So, dont expect to see a lot of crowd for test matches in the northern part of India (except Delhi). However that doesnt mean that there is no interest for those games. Millions of people are following the matches on TV at their homes / shops / workplaces and when TV is not there on internet and on mobile phones... I went to all 5 days of the Bangalore test match. On the first day of the Mohali test, as it looked likely that Sachin will get to his record, I bunked office for the afternoon session , went home and watched him go past the record. I hada afriend who came from Chennai to watch the sat and sun action in the Blore test. So, the craziness is there, but in different flavours... I like watching the test match more - cos its like a holiday... like a picnic. Like a 5 day pilgrimage.. to wake up early in the morning, pack ur lunch and whatver snacks you want, enter the stadium without much rush, spend the whole day there... sometimes even catch up with an afternoon nap, when the proceeding gets dull, come back in the evening, watch highlights on TV, goto sleep to get up next day morning to repeat the ritual. Now I feel that watching one day cricket at stadium is more hectic and not so interesting. There will be a huge crowd, resulting in long queues, once you are in the stands and got ur seat, cant move your bums - else your seat will be gone. There is an ODI here in november against England. having already spent close to 5K on the India / Aus match, I'm thinking whether I would really want to go see the match against Pommies. For me the Test series against Australia was bigger than the meaningless one day matches. May be there is a different set of spectators who may feel the exact opposite and may buy the tickets at a very very high price and go see the match... Its just that different ppl like different flavors but the underlying sport is the same, CRICKET and Indians are truly crazy about it. My thoughts on why people did not turn out in big numbers at Mohali are 1. Except members stand - rest of the stands are uncovered, which means you have to sit in scorching heat 2. Ticket prices were very high. Just out of curiosity, I visited the kyazoonga.com website that was selling the tickets for this match. The lowest priced ticket was 1000 per day. Whereas Blore had options starting at 250 an there were 400, 600, 1000, 1500. 3. Punjabis are not cricket purists. They may not like to sit whole day and watch 3 sessions of 30 overs each and still go home without kknowing who won the match...

brilliant post ,agree with every word:two_thumbs_up:specially the lassi drinking punjabi one coz ai can relate to it

[h4te]

There is a (almost) full house for the challenger match. LULZ!

[CC1981]

Many Indians are cricket-crazy...hell, too crazy. We've had people here saying ' you should be shot!' for supporting Pakistan or another team or saying Tendy is lesser than xyz. We have people routinely burning effigies at the drop of a hat, etc etc. Kind of amusing at the barbarity of it all because at the end of the day, its a meaningless sport, with 2 guys whacking a ball with a stick and 11 men chasing the ball - i can think of a zillion things more meaningful and worthy to get worked up over than a silly sport ( dont get me wrong- i love sport, its fun to watch, but its afterall, just a bloody sport!) but we still have morons who will pick a fight, tell people they should be dead, etc etc. all for supporting a person/team they don't like in a ****ing sport.... The best thing about sport is the competetive aspect amongst the players, the worst thing in sport is the fans.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

There is a (almost) full house for the challenger match. LULZ!

Thats probably beause the entire CT was played in just 4 centers.While there were more than 20 ODI centers in India, for some strange reason, BCCI decided to host the entire tournament within those 4 centers. So, ppl in those cities had an overdose of cricket and they had the option to choose what they wanted to see. Had the tournament been played across the country, with each center not getting more than 1 oe 2 matches, response would have been different. A clasic example would be the 1996 and 1987 worldcups... I still remember the 1987 WC where my dad took me (I was around 7or 8 then) to watch a meaningless Aus Vs Zim match because he wanted me to catch a glimpse of the WorldCup. And in 1996 Worldcup, the only match Chennai hosted was the Quarter Finals between Aus and NZ, which I watched simply because it was a WorldCup match and it was the first ever match under lights at the MAC. If Chennai hosted, say, 3 or 4 matches with 2 involving India, then I would have chose to skip the neutral match and go watch the India matches. How could I miss the India Pakistan Quarterfinal that took place the very next day. Ofcourse there are also people who inspite of being die hard fans of cricket, dont understand the special feeling that comes with watching a cricket match live in the stadium. For them spending exobirant amount of money to get tickets and spend whole day in the stadium is a waste of time and they prefer to do it in the cozy comfort of their homes. You can only pity those souls, nevertheless they are also part of the cricket crazy nation that drives advertising revenues... Again I'm emphasizing the point that the popularity and craziness that cricket enjoys in this country canot be measured by the gate collection at the stadiums alone... Only those who live in this country (or lived), who talk, eat, drink and sleep cricket will know what it is like...

[Dinx - the Jinx]

sorry.. i thought u were referring to Champions Trophy in 2006... never mind

[punjabi_khota]

Is it really that ****ing hot right now in Chandigarh ? I remember mid october-november being the most pleasant days of the year. :-(

[Ram]

Many are blaming ODIs and T20 for lack of crowds in tests. I would like to know when have we ever had big crowds in tests in the northern centers of India? I have seen test matches played in places like Kanpur without a soul in the stands, even many years ago. The absence of crowds for test matches once again reveals a lack of sporting culture in our country. And when people do come and watch cricket, its only for the masala ingredients like big hitting and dance girls. But personally speaking, I wouldn’t ever go to a test match venue to watch the cricket. Its pointless, you hardly get to see anything that’s happening. Watching cricket at home on a T.V telecast is a much more enriching experience. For me, cricket is not designed to be spectator friendly sport, coz everyone is so away from the action, unlike Basketball or Tennis. The only good thing about watching the action live on the ground is actually when a six is hit. Unlike on T.V, when you lose relative perspective of where the ball is with respect to the ground level, if you're in the crowd and a batsman lofts the ball for six, you can clearly follow the ball's trajactory right from the moment it left the ball, to the point when it landed in the crowd. Those 1 or 2 seconds of ball hang-time is definitely quite exhilarating. :D

[punjabi_khota]

Many are blaming ODIs and T20 for lack of crowds in tests. I would like to know when have we ever had big crowds in tests in the northern centers of India? I have seen test matches played in places like Kanpur without a soul in the stands, even many years ago. The absence of crowds for test matches once again reveals a lack of sporting culture in our country. And when people do come and watch cricket, its only for the masala ingredients like big hitting and dance girls. But personally speaking, I wouldn’t ever go to a test match venue to watch the cricket. Its pointless, you hardly get to see anything that’s happening. Watching cricket at home on a T.V telecast is a much more enriching experience. For me, cricket is not designed to be spectator friendly sport, coz everyone is so away from the action, unlike Basketball or Tennis. The only good thing about watching the action live on the ground is actually when a six is hit. Unlike on T.V, when you lose relative perspective of where the ball is with respect to the ground level, if you're in the crowd and a batsman lofts the ball for six, you can clearly follow the ball's trajactory right from the moment it left the ball, to the point when it landed in the crowd. Those 1 or 2 seconds of ball hang-time is definitely quite exhilarating. :D

Maybe, other people think like you too, haha.

[Prudent]

Testing times: Why fans are skipping India-Aus matches Empty seats at last weekend's test between India and Australia have alarmed cricket's administrators, who were already worried that the runaway success of Twenty20 could spell doom for the classic, five-day game. "All of us were concerned when we came here and saw the lack of spectators," said International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat, who was in Mohali. "We want to promote and protect this form of the game and we are looking at it very seriously." Organisers in Mohali brought in bus loads of schoolchildren to fill the stands after the second test began last Friday with barely a hundred fans scattered around the ground. There was little noise when India won the toss and opted to bat and the volume swelled only slightly when Sachin Tendulkar overtook West Indian Brian Lara as the highest test-run scorer. The third test, in New Delhi, starts next Wednesday, a day after Diwali, and officials fear fans may stay away again. The crushing nature of India's second-test defeat of Australia, by a record 320 runs, and security fears following a series of blasts in the Indian capital last month could also dampen enthusiasm for the test, they feel. "We get evidence of interest in test matches from attendance of spectators at the ground," said Lorgat. "Bangalore (the first test venue) had a great crowd but we are certainly disappointed by the crowd numbers in Mohali." The same Mohali stadium had attracted full houses when it held Indian Twenty20 franchise league games earlier this year, with fans regarding the three-hour contests as a perfect family outing.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Many are blaming ODIs and T20 for lack of crowds in tests. I would like to know when have we ever had big crowds in tests in the northern centers of India? I have seen test matches played in places like Kanpur without a soul in the stands, even many years ago. The absence of crowds for test matches once again reveals a lack of sporting culture in our country. And when people do come and watch cricket, its only for the masala ingredients like big hitting and dance girls. But personally speaking, I wouldn’t ever go to a test match venue to watch the cricket. Its pointless, you hardly get to see anything that’s happening. Watching cricket at home on a T.V telecast is a much more enriching experience. For me, cricket is not designed to be spectator friendly sport, coz everyone is so away from the action, unlike Basketball or Tennis. The only good thing about watching the action live on the ground is actually when a six is hit. Unlike on T.V, when you lose relative perspective of where the ball is with respect to the ground level, if you're in the crowd and a batsman lofts the ball for six, you can clearly follow the ball's trajactory right from the moment it left the ball, to the point when it landed in the crowd. Those 1 or 2 seconds of ball hang-time is definitely quite exhilarating. :D

Tell me honestly... Have you ever watched an international cricket match at the stadium?

[vadodaravictor]

Typical biased Aussie journalist taking a dig at India! The picture below beautifully illustrates that the "gentlemen's game" is in the pink of health in our country.

:haha: That was really funny

[King]

It seems Mohali is away from the city and the transport is not the best to get to the ground. This is what I was told by one of the journos for the poor turnout. I was told Mohali was the only ground that didn't fill regularly for IPL as well.

[Shane]

Typical biased Aussie journalist taking a dig at India! The picture below beautifully illustrates that the "gentlemen's game" is in the pink of health in our country.

Look at those fingers twirling around, we might have just found our version of Ajantha Mendis !!! :giggle:

[amit467]

Well Punjab has never been a cricket mad part of India (relatively) anyway. If they played the matches in the heartland areas ... that is, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras ... they would get a sellout or very very close to one Even Delhi should produce a better turnout.

Punjabis like to watch cricket but they want to enjoy there dance as well with lot of dance and beautiful sexy girls around. That's why you will not see lot of crowd during test matches in this part of india.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Punjabis like to watch cricket but they want to enjoy there dance as well with lot of dance and beautiful sexy girls around. That's why you will not see lot of crowd during test matches in this part of india.

great insight amit. we never knew this for sure. tnx for opening our eyes