Wankhede Crowd is testament to what test cricket in India could look like

[Cricketics]

First up, my hats off  to the crowd who came in big numbers all day and on top made lot of noise and made the game look more watchable on TV.

 

I honestly feel places like Wankhede deserve a major test match every year. This is our Fenway Park, this is our MCG, and this is our Lord's. We have to treat it like it. I know we have plenty of grounds, but Test Cricket needs to be treated the way it deserves treatment, which is a special treatment. There are only about 3-5 home test played regularly in a year for India or at times 7, and one of them for me has to be Wankhede every time.

 

Players love such atmosphere and if we need to make sure that people at other locations in India show up to the stadiums for a test match, then they need to have a game at Wankhede every year so people can watch on tv and see how interested people are in watching test cricket in person.

 

Day 4 deserves a special mention. We were 7 down, and 1 quick wicket would have resulted in early closure of our innings. People do not like spending money when India is bowling, and this was a big risk yesterday as India could have been easily bowled out in first half an hour or 1st hour and rest of the day crowd would have had to settle with just Indian bowling. However, Right form the first ball, the stadium was making noise. The crowd showed up in big numbers to watch Kohli's 200 and Jayant too contributed extremely well and made his first century. More than the whole of India, I think Wankhede crowd who turned up in big numbers deserved to see Indian batting for a longer period which they eventually got to see on Day 4, deservingly.

 

To conclude, we seriously need to put more games at this ground. It might not be our fortress in test cricket, but there is too much history involved with this ground. It is a sacred place for a cricket fan, every Indian should visit it on a pilgrimage.

 

Let's bring back the crowds to test matches.

 

[Laaloo]

OT:

 

Why do you put some of your points in bold? We can read and understand you know. Soon you will start putting them in large sizes like fineleg.

[Vijy]

In general, bigger cities = bigger audiences (exceptions to rules obviously do exist)

[Cricketics]

4 minutes ago, laaloo said:

OT:

 

Why do you put some of your points in bold? We can read and understand you know. Soon you will start putting them in large sizes like fineleg.

Time has changed as you said. Not everyone likes to read big or write big. So for some, I bold it to get the main points across.

 

 

#commonsense

[Laaloo]

Just now, Cricketics said:

Time has changed as you said. Not everyone likes to read big or write big. So for som, I bold it to get the main points across.

 

 

#commonsense

yeah but usually if you're pasting a big article, then you highlight the main points. Not when you're giving your own views. Anyways lets no digress. True #commonsense would be needed for @fineleg

[narenpande1]

Not saying this because I am a Mumbaikar,Wankhede has the most patriotic home team supporters in India.

 

In Eden Gardens for example, there was a match where Ganguly was dropped and the crowd supported the opposition team ... would you believe it !!!

 

You would not find this from the Wankhede crowd. It's all about supporting India for them 

Edited December 12, 2016 by narenpande1

[Cricketics]

3 minutes ago, Vijy said:

In general, bigger cities = bigger audiences (exceptions to rules obviously do exist)

Used to be, not any more. Bigger audience still sitting at their homes. Wankhede/Mumbai people actually turn up. 

[Vijy]

2 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Used to be, not any more. Bigger audience still sitting at their homes. Wankhede/Mumbai people actually turn up. 

Thought Chennai crowds were decent? Havent actually seen the audiences. Is it low in Ede, the Kotla, Chinnaswamy, etc. too?

[f.b.m]

2 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Used to be, not any more. Bigger audience still sitting at their homes. Wankhede/Mumbai people actually turn up. 

Depends where the stadium is. Inner city stadiums always get good crowds.

[adi B]

Great crowd but then 2 days were weekends and today was a GH so...

[BeautifulGame]

Actually there were plenty of empty stadiums in recent times in Wankhede .Mainly because it kept getting overloaded with test matches .Before this one, only the Sachin retirement test for big crowd.

This is the perfect way .Don't give any of the big grounds(Chennai Mumbai Bangalore Kolkata ) too many tests in a row.It drains the appetite to attend matches .

Give the big grounds test at most once in 2 years and generally once in 3 years .

Spread test cricket is smaller venues where generally people are longing for live cricket and will attend in big numbers .We had big crowds in the 2nd test against New Zealand (in Indore ?) .

The problem is giving tests to grounds like Mohali or Nagpur which never gets any crowds .

[Cricketics]

4 minutes ago, Vijy said:

Thought Chennai crowds were decent? Havent actually seen the audiences. Is it low in Ede, the Kotla, Chinnaswamy, etc. too?

I think Chennai crowds haven't be good. Neither have been other places. I love Delhi crowd which produces good numbers, but still they slack a bit compare to Mumbai crowd, at least that is what I have seen in recent history.

4 minutes ago, f.b.m said:

Depends where the stadium is. Inner city stadiums always get good crowds.

That definitely can be a reason and why places like D.Y patil do not get that many games compared to other grounds, but still, I am talking about our major test playing centers who have hosted games pretty much from last few decades. They should be having good numbers. Numbers have dropped big time as other formats have gone popular.

 

This hasn't been the case with some particular test grounds all over the world. MCG, some of the grounds in England, and India's Wankhede are ground where people have turned up in big numbers on regular basis, regardless of the format.

 

 

[Laaloo]

Just now, BeautifulGame said:

Actually there were plenty of empty stadiums in recent times in Wankhede .Mainly because it kept getting overloaded with test matches .Before this one, only the Sachin retirement test for big crowd.

This is the perfect way .Don't give any of the big grounds(Chennai Mumbai Bangalore Kolkata ) too many tests in a row.It drains the appetite to attend matches .

Give the big grounds test at most once in 2 years and generally once in 3 years .

Spread test cricket is smaller venues where generally people are longing for live cricket and will attend in big numbers .We had big crowds in the 2nd test against New Zealand (in Indore ?) .

The problem is giving tests to grounds like Mohali or Nagpur which never gets any crowds .

Yes more matches to grounds in Indore and Vizag please

 

And no more Rajkot or Mohali or Nagpur

[Cricketics]

12 minutes ago, narenpande1 said:

Not saying this because I am a Mumbaikar,Wankhede has the most patriotic home team supporters in India.

 

In Eden Gardens for example, there was a match where Ganguly was dropped and the crowd supported the opposition team ... would you believe it !!!

 

You would not find this from the Wankhede crowd. It's all about supporting India for them 

I am from Delhi, and when it comes to bias, I have one for Delhi, but I rather not have any bias in such topics as my true cricket sense tells me that Wankhede is miles better than Delhi or other places.

 

Eden is al right. They turn up when India is batting only or may be if Day 1 is on the weekend.

[vvvslaxman]

Big Thank you for wankhede crowd

[BeautifulGame]

No one produces an atmosphere like Eden .It doesn't matter which sport Kolkata generally produces the best atmosphere.I have also attended ISL matches in Salt lake it is incredible.

There is a difference between when 90000 people roar and back you than when it is 30000

[Laaloo]

1 minute ago, BeautifulGame said:

No one produces an atmosphere like Eden .It doesn't matter which sport Kolkata generally produces the best atmosphere.

There is a difference between when 90000 people roar and back you than when it is 30000

too bad edens only support 66000 now

[Cricketics]

2 minutes ago, BeautifulGame said:

 

No one produces an atmosphere like Eden .It doesn't matter which sport Kolkata generally produces the best atmosphere.I have also attended ISL matches in Salt lake it is incredible.

 

There is a difference between when 90000 people roar and back you than when it is 30000

I haven't been to either Mumbai or Eden grounds to actually to tell you what it feels like, but it's been a while since Eden has produced good test match crowd. That experience of 90000 people you talk about, wasn't it back in 2001 when the test cricket was much popular and India won the famous series. Since then, the ground was renovated and the capacity, I heard has gone down, and the crowd also haven't been turning up in big numbers.

[BeautifulGame]

too bad edens only support 66000 now

Yeah that's a real shame.

My greatest memory of test cricket was the 2001 Kolkata test final session.I t gave goosebumps even watching on tv

[punjabi_khota]

Mohali crowd can match mumbai's crowd. They just have to allow daaru in the stands.