Notes From The World Cup: Massacre at The Modium

LMAO

On 30th May 2019, I was at work. I remember this because I had been looking forward to that day. The 2019 Men’s ODI World Cup was starting, and I almost let the excitement slip into calls and meetings. The opening ceremony, held one day prior, was uniquely elegant and added to the mood. Instead of force-feeding us bored narratives about cricket and culture, they threw a party. Retired legends played two-a-side games in the streets of central London as fans lined up a few metres behind. There was live music too. The ten captains, suited up, walked onto a makeshift stage as the DJ switched to the catchy theme song, Stand By. English summer, grey skies, pop colours. I promise you I looked up airline ticket prices a few times while watching the opening ceremony.

The next day, I had to show up at work because of a meeting, which, thankfully, was ending about an hour before the first match started. So a few colleagues – calling them friends would be a stretch – and I put up a couple of 55-inch monitors near our bay and plugged in the streaming platform. Imran Tahir ambled in to bowl the first over as we muttered “Let’s go”. The noise from two minutes later, after Tahir nicked off Jonny Bairstow on the second ball, made an office floor sound like a pub. By this time, about twenty people had flocked to our bay, some with laptops, others with a mug of filter coffee. We watched the first half an hour together.

Yesterday afternoon, less than 10,000 people, maybe even 5000, watched Trent Boult run in for the first over of the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup. It was an unnerving sight. The first match of a major tournament, played between the two teams who gave us the most unforgettable final last time around, unfurling in front of giant empty walls of an orange fishbowl some people like to call The Narendra Modi Stadium. During the pre-match show, I was hoping to hear the crowd noise compete with Ravi Shastri’s larynx. Instead, Ravi had a monopoly over the airwaves as he fumbled through the toss, momentarily forgetting the name of Tom Latham, New Zealand’s captain.

As the game moved, the sight grew even more jarring. The vastness of The Modium – a term borrowed from here – highlighted the lack of a participating crowd in fluorescent orange. Everyone had noticed the lack of hype or general fucks in the air, and the excess of world events fans have been subjected to in recent times, but no one expected an empty stadium for a match of this magnitude.

The initial chatter placed the blame on BCCI for lacklustre planning and logistics. Releasing the schedule a hundred days from the start gives fans precious little time to plan. Releasing tickets just a month before the World Cup leaves them with an even lesser margin. Withholding a chunk of tickets because you have to please sponsors is just criminal. People based in the host country are finding it tough to sort out tickets or travel; imagine those who have to fly internationally to support their team at a world tournament. Fans give texture and colour to any event. Instead, we got empty, pigeon discharge-covered seats. One curious fan even found available tickets from the game on BookMyShow, the official ticketing partner.

And then the floodgates opened for the funny stuff. Apparently, and this is just inferred from what many are revealing on Twitter, a large percentage of the tickets were distributed to women for free under the pretext of free food and water. Some were even told they were attending an India vs. Pakistan game.

https://twitter.com/cuttackgupchup/status/1709902132382716307

By the evening, a few more people filled up, but even then, it was not nearly close to capacity. Rather than quoting a number, I'd like to present you with a screenshot from the peak of the evening.

Like specks of dust

The Modium – get used to it already – is installed in Ahmedabad. The biggest city in the home state of our country’s Prime Minister, Home Minister, and the Secretary of our cricket board, who also happens to be the Home Minister’s son. The BJP and BCCI, interchangeable soon, have marketed this as a diamond in India’s attire. Its inauguration coincided (lol) with the visit of then-US President, Donald Trump. About a hundred thousand people, kids and senior citizens included, filled in for the Namaste Trump event in orchestrated clothing and headgear. Completely normal behaviour. Since that awful political rally, The Modium has become the centre of Indian cricket. Most important matches are played here and it is given precedence over traditional cricket centres like Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai, or Bangalore. This World Cup, it is hosting the opener, India vs. Pakistan, Australia vs. England, and the final. No big deal.

Stadiums are known for their atmosphere. Even the 25,000-seater Selhurst Park in London can be a scary place to visit for opposition teams. The sights and sounds can get to teams, sometimes even the best of them. If erecting a monument was all it took to build a cricket culture, no stadium would stand still for too long.

Ahmedabad likes its cricket, as the crowds at the old Motera Stadium often suggested. Instead, the lack of incentive and marketing for a game that doesn’t involve India has blown up in the faces of the BCCI. Will I skip work and other daily chores to attend an England vs. New Zealand game on a hot Thursday afternoon? Make me and I might just.

The BCCI will be hurting. They are all about optics and this turned out to be a missed opportunity. Imagine the energy they could’ve infused into the tournament had they curated a carnivalesque atmosphere for the opener. One would think they would go to great lengths to show up Ahmedabad as the Ibiza of cricket. It is rather curious how badly they have messed this up. But, no problem. They have a ticket out of Thursday’s Svalbard impression.

They host the party next weekend when India and Pakistan come to town. You won’t find an empty seat, hotel room, or hospital bed that day. Even the game after that, a couple of weeks later, has England playing Australia on a Saturday. Sorted.

There will be hype around both of those matches, but nothing will scrape off the shambles from 5th October 2023. That’s about the only thing I will remember from the first day of the 2023 World Cup. Which is a crying shame because New Zealand have just executed a run chase written by batting gods. Hopefully, I can write about Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra on another day, when the sights from a large orange fishbowl weren’t making me cry with laughter.