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Remember ‘It’s coming home’ – that catchy song which became a running theme all over England when their football team had a dream run at home during Euro 2020!? As the ODI World Cup action returns here after 12 years, shouldn’t India, cricket’s real home, have a song that’s on everyone’s lips?
Well, the Cup has a theme song, but ask any fan if ‘Dil jashn bole’ rings a bell and they may have to Google it. It hasn’t caught on. It’s similar to the hype quotient, or lack of it in Ahmedabad, on eve of the tournament opener between defending champions England and New Zealand. That epic final at Lord’s feels like distant history.
As you land in Gujarat’s administrative headquarters, ‘Amdavaad’ as the locals call it, you find one ICC sponsor to have booked a slot on the electronic advertising billboard that keeps switching commercials. There also a large sized World Cup trophy cut-out at one corner of the airport. But as one moves out and towards the Narendra Modi stadium, there’s nothing in the city to draw fans’ attention to the big event in town.
Much before the cricket stadium in Motera got a new name, it’s been accustomed to record breaking cricket scripts unfolding. Sunil Gavaskar scaled Mt 10,000 in Test cricket here. It was here that Kapil Dev broke Richard Hadlee’s world record. In the fitness of things, the stadium is set to add another feather to its cap with the highest spectator turnout for a World Cup cricket match – 1,30,000 of them. Some accounts say 1,10,000. But that’s about October 14 when India clashes with Pakistan.
80 percent of the matches during the tournament’s league phase will not feature India. “Expect around 45,000 people on Thursday,” a seasoned local administrator predicted. That’s quite a lot for any cricket ground in any country. But at the enormous stadium here, it would mean plenty of empty bucket seats.
Shouldn’t the tournament opener have featured hosts India? Like in 2019, 2015, even 2011, when co-hosts India and Bangladesh kicked off the tournament.
MISSING HYPE OR NOT
Indian captain Rohit Sharma was dismissive about the lack of hype.
“Everyone’s excited. Even before we got into the home games (against Australia), a month back, the talk was all about the World Cup,” he said, on the dais with nine other captains, who had been chartered for the event.
“It’s quite common. Cricket is the biggest sport here and the excitement is spread across the country,” he added.
Sharma and his squad of 15 will not be short of support. But this World Cup being of the longer white-ball version, lacking the pace and packaging of T20 cricket and the rich history of Test cricket, surely needs some.
The captains were asked if the ODI World Cup was still the biggest event in cricket? With no one volunteering, the reporter asked, why don’t you answer, Rohit? Smiling, the Indian captain passed the mic to Kane Williamson.
“Yeah, I mean, I think every four years, even though with the introduction of all the T20 competitions…T20 World Cups, they’re still very much major events, the World Test Championship as well, but I still think the ODI World Cup, I don’t know if everybody else shares that same opinion, but it’s definitely one of the top events that we can play and be involved in,” he said.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Ben Stokes has come out of retirement, but the changing commercial dynamics of the game may force a flurry of retirements in teams other than India; Stokes included, after the end of this edition.
At the captains’ gathering, all the leaders spoke of finding their own inspiration. Sharma declared, ‘his team knew, what was at stake’ playing at home. For England, Eoin Morgan’s team represented the attitude era. Jos Buttler spoke of carrying the legacy forward. Babar Azam would not miss the significance of a Pakistan team doing well in India.
Pat Cummins’ didn’t need reminding that no other team had won more ODI World Cups than Australia. “I can’t take too much credit for many of them. I think we had a really strong team in the early 2000s. I think one day cricket is a format that’s really suited Australian teams of the past… they were amazing, really athletic. So hopefully we can carry it on. It’s a pretty good history we’ve had in World Cups. So hopefully another one,” he said.
Visibly exhausted, the captains repeated the mundane on how they they would deal with pressure and leverage from their IPL playing experience in India. South African skipper Temba Bavuma was sleepy and couldn’t hide it. Azam, slightly irritated when asked about the taste of Hyderabadi biryani, said, “Sau baari bata chuke hai (have answered this question hundreds of times).” Before adding, to ease the air, “We had heard a lot, it felt quite good.”
Maybe, by the time cricket takes over, the cricketers will find the reserves for six weeks of 100 overs-a-match routine. Maybe, we will all get used to ODI cricket’s tempo again.
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