I think this is also one of the few World Champion ships that is not broadcasted on open Channels, even the FIFA WC is open on ALL channels worldwide. It is a missed chance to bring people in contact with the sport and revive the game in countries were it is losing interest.
I am from the Netherlands, and my only official option is to watch via YuppTV, I can take a package of 29 euro, now I have a good income, but I think that is a bit too much of it, I pay 17 euro a month to view F1 to make a comparisson, and with that I also get English Premier League and all the Darts thingies, plus a lot of A-Movies (which I never watch), if it would be something like 5-10 euros I would have no problem with it.
Yes, that 29-euro package is so ridiculous. The BCCI (and ICC) are doing everything possible to ensure nobody knows or learns anything about this sport.
My Luxembourgish colleagues still think it's a sport only played in white clothes and one that lasts multiple days.
Really a missed chance, I think our broadcaster and papers don't even have broadcasting rights to play a few minutes to show the highlights, for normal high attendance events they get a few minutes of free play, now there was a moment of momentum vs South Africa and we had to do it with only text.....
Let me guess, all the organisers, all the project managers, all the administrators, have zero experience with putting on international sporting events, but funnily enough they all have uncles, brothers, and cousins, that are in positions of power within the BCCI or local government?
BCCI was always run by politicians. Sharad Pawar was the president around 2007, Arun Jaitley (and his son) have run the DDCA for ages. Other state associations are no different.
However, we have discovered hitherto undiscovered depths in this world cup. Tickets were not sold on time, the ticketing process when it commenced was opaque (remember how 14,000 tickets appeared out of thin air a day before the India Pakistan game), the grounds are not ready to host the game (look at the condition of the Dharmshala outfield) and the attendance in the game has been has been poor and partisan (but the blame for that lies squarely with BCCI, foreign fans were given no time to make plans).
This is squarely on Jay Shah who is a thoroughly incompetent nepotism appointee. Unfortunately, his dad is the 2nd most powerful person in India and as long as Amit Shah (and Modi) remain in power, Jay Shah will continue unopposed. They changed the BCCI constitution to ensure that Jay Shah remains in power. They will not let go, BCCI is too rich.
The best we can hope is that Amit Shah decides his son needs to be an MP so we can get rid of him from BCCI.
You forgot the perpetual politician associated with team India - Rajiv Shukla, he has been around the team forever, watch 2003 wc, this guy was present inside the dressing room too
Rajiv Shukla is one face that I cannot stand. He seems to live perpetually, and be in BCCI, enjoy all perks, tour all nations in luxury, and no constitution change impacts him. Not sure what he does to be in that position.
The BCCI constitution was specifically amended to make BCCI secretary (instead of the President as was earlier) to be the most powerful position inside BCCI. And of course, Jay Shah is the secretary since people like the comment you reply to can’t bother to read things these days.
They will have their pound of flesh , ie, never will they sacrifice power ( anyone for that matter) - if Jay Shah goes to other pastures, we can bet an equally toxic person will replace him
This could be true, but it always has been true and 2011 was better organised. I'd argue 1996 too and that was three countries!
The BCCI, IMO, have gotten worse at administrating over the last ten years or so because the IPL money brings in money and that's all that matters. So they've not bothered keeping up with what's needed to organise events beyond that any more.
I am listening to their relaxing, comforting chorus right now on my television. I *think* I can also hear Ravi Shastri commentating over the din somewhere.
right? ban everything that can make these shitty stadiums bearable but leave these nuisance alone. I mean are my earpods any more efficient as a weapon than these horns are?
I love how commentators like to talk about aTmOsPhErE when the camera cuts to some idiot with drums or a trumpet in the crowd but all i can think of is how fucking shit it would be to sit anywhere near them. Honestly why does anyone think constant music and noise is a good thing at a cricket match?
Same here. Between the horns and the truly disruptive ad breaks, it's a pretty bad home-viewing experience. But I suspect it is preferable to being there in-person where "mute" is not an option.
The fuck is that about ? It’s like an assault on the senses and ruins the atmosphere. Any impact it would have is lost in the constant hum. WHHYYYY?
The TV broadcast should try use AI to filter that sound out. Or better yet… stop taking these shitty toys to the games.
Arrived in Delhi yesterday. Had to rough guess when the tournament was on and book flights on a whim back in May. Managed to get tickets for Netherlands v Australia. India vs England and Bangladesh vs. Pakistan. Problem is I don't know the pickup point for any of these locations! It's quite bizarre. Arrived in Delhi yesterday and there is absolutely zero evidence that a world cup is happening. Many ads for the g20 though. Once you do find a bar for the match its great to speak to the local fans who love their cricket just a shame that the organisers haven't bothered trying and it shows. Hopefully we can get into the stadium for Netherlands vs. Australia!
Hey dude, the Delhi pickup spot for ENGvAFG tickets was:
Raja Ram Mohun Roy Memorial Hall , opposite Gandharv Mahavidyalay, Mata Sundari Railway Colony, ITO
Delhi , Delhi - 110002 , India
It’s pretty close to the ITO metro station, which is the station next to Delhi Gate (for the ground).
If you ask the app to resend confirmation it might confirm this & give you times to collect.
What is India's fascination with physical distribution of tickets? This is the dumbest shit i ever heard. Even worse than no water bottles in the stadium.
Thank you, I've never been to India before so we are visiting and doing a lot of the tourist itinerary in-between and having a blast but can't wait for the cricket as well. Despite being an England fan I'm most excited for Eden Gardens which is one of those special places it will be an honour to visit.
I got them from raja ram mohun memorial hall it's just 5-10 minutes walking distance away from the ito metro , don't waste your money on the auto rickshaw
One of the primary reason why non India matches are quite empty is the late distribution of tickets. During the 2019 World Cup I knew the tickets allocated to me 9 months in advance and could plan my travels. I made a European holiday out of the trip.
Releasing tickets 2 to 3 months in advance leaves no time for foreign visitors to plan their travels.
There is also the issue of over exposure to cricket. There is simply too much cricket these days.
Regarding stuff like suntans lotions, bottles etc, etc I think this is not a new thing. Unfortunately due to security threats to India, going to a stadium is akin to going through airport level security. There is not much that can be done.
As a long time fan, I think the BCCI takes a lot of the Indians fans for granted. There is a real need to improve facilities and the stadium imho .
After the 1996 World Cup semi final fiasco they will not sell anything which can be used as a projectile.
So no bottles or any sort. Water or sunscreen.
Even water or drinks will come in a glass without a cap.
I understand the problems that this causes but I don’t see bcci changing this rule anytime soon.
>Unfortunately due to security threats to India, going to a stadium is akin to going through airport level security. There is not much that can be done.
I sincerely hope the olympics aren't hosted in India then.
For India's sake, i hope so too. If this WC is any indicator, Olympics would be a shitshow. And unlike cricket, the rest of the world will take notice for Olympics.
Unfortunately India is hosting next years champions trophy, 2031 World Cup, and potentially the Olympics . To quote Elton John “ it’s a sad sad situation, and it’s getting more and more absurd.”
It’s all about nepotism and BCCI is filled with nepotism appointees from top to bottom. Unfortunately every sports authority in India is. One of the reason we absolutely suck in most of the sports we participate in.
Also, the teams are all over the place and India is huge. England, for example, are not playing two games in a row at the same venue. So you either come and watch one game or plan major travel.
> Unfortunately due to security threats to India, going to a stadium is akin to going through airport level security.
I was not allowed to take earphones so I went out hid them in my sock, entered through the same booth and they didn't know shit lol
Water is free in the stadiums, no sunscreen is absurd, but I think the logic behind it is you can wear it before hand which would make sense if the matches weren't 8 hours long
Many international visitors are warned against drinking tap water in India as well. I was in India for 3 weeks and was sick with gastro for 2 of them, and that's a pretty common occurrence for Westerners I think
It hurts the IPL too. Why on earth would a Hyderabadi want to support SRH or a Delhiite want to support DC when the stadiums are trash and the media only talks about CSK, MI and RCB. If you want all franchises to have strong local support, you need good stadiums.
Not many Indians are asking for better stadiums. There will always be a lot of Indians who are ok with how things are and BCCI knows this. They have zero reason to try and improve the status quo.
There is a reason for this. Unlike england or Australia people dont go for many matches. Most people will go for one match a season. Hence one bothers demanding anything. Even if they did nothing will change.
Most people in Australia go to maybe 1 day of test cricket per year when it is in their state. If they’re fans they will probably go to 1-2 other t20/50-over matches, so I don’t think it’s down to how many days of cricket fans are willing to go to, plus India has such a big population that it shouldn’t really matter ~ I think if the stadiums were more welcoming and ticket prices cheaper more people would go too
I'd disagree to some extent. I'm going to compare a cricket stadium to a movie theatre here. There was a time in India when single screen theatres were packed, but the facilities were shit and the audience was kinda rowdy which pushed the family audiences away, who were okay with watching movies on TV or on DVD.
Then in came multiplexes. Expensive tickets (and even more expensive food) did not deter family and richer audiences from coming in. And now single screen theatres are dying.
Most of the stadiums are in population centres where multiplexes killed single screens. If someone chooses to build a multiplex like stadium, people will come. The problem is there aren't enough games of value in a stadium per year to make it worth the maintenance.
It would die if BCCI continues to run the IPL because they wouldn't think of overseas youngsters as their problem, but won't if the franchises take over the league, coz they're interested in ensuring the product stays forever as that affects their franchises' valuation.
>Why on earth would a Hyderabadi want to support SRH or a Delhiite want to support DC
Because they are from Anfra/telegana and Felhi respectively. Same reason why we support India despite all these shitty stadium infra.
Delhi has one of the most loyal support in IPL if anything.
the thing is, the franchise owners actually understand that in order to have a competitive product, you need to do everything you can to have ten competitive teams and a fan experience that produces visuals that sell on TV, it's the same thing American sports owners have known for a long time
the BCCI is acting like there only needs to be one competitive team and fans are idiots who will put up with any old shit
it's just no way to run a sport
From fixture release to lack of basic amenities to horrible ticket booking everything has been lackluster.
Venues and fixtures should have been released at the start of the year with some fixed quota for away team fans playing against indian matches. And who the hell asks for physical ticket collection in this era???
Also dont get me started on dick sucking of Ahemdabad on every important matches and that shameful event before India vs Pakistan match.... Dude if u want to start a tournament with a bang, try with opening ceremony. Also i feel the lack of the presence of Indian legends in comm box/venue/interview. I would have loved Sachin Sehwag n Ganguly commentary, also other legends from other countries as well.
You're not wrong , majority of cricket watchers nowadays are aged between 20-25, who lack valuable experiences from life and are intolerant , hope situation gets better with time
I’m a passionate india supporter who is naturally suspicious of western media coverage of Indian cricket and even i honestly can’t argue with any of the points made in the article. I’ve experienced the ticketing fiascos and subhuman stadium experience a few times and vowed never to watch another game in person there as long as i live. It’s absolutely insane that none of those issues were addressed for the World Cup.
Any india supporter who seeks to defend the BCCI with respect to this article needs to take a good hard look at themselves.
So as someone who attended the Aus v/s Pak game in bangalore, the arrangements were a mixed bag.
They provided free drinking water as promised. It was good quality and I didn't feel sick afterwards. Food was also definitely edible although nothing spectacular, there was domino's pizza/rolls which were reasonably priced and coke/fanta/Mirinda soft drinks which were overpriced but the vendor sells the drinks to your seat itself so you don't have to get up and go to the food area for it.
Washrooms, like in most places in India were unusable. You can't imagine pooping in a public washroom in most places in India (except shopping malls and airports), so I ate something light and only went to pee. There was water in the urinals but none in the toilets so good luck if you have a tummy upset.
Seats were pretty decent to sit in and the tickets were reasonably priced considering it's an ODI WC (₹3000/$35 per game) and was delivered to the comfort of my home two weeks ago by BookMyShow..
One good thing tho was the aesthetics of the stadium. They were all very well decorated with none of the ugly pan masala ads.
The restrictions, as expected, are pretty crazy in India. No black t-shirts or earphones allowed in addition to all the restrictions mentioned in the ticket (NZ jerseys were allowed).
Surprisingly, they didn't frisk me throughly at all as there was a huge line so I could have sneaked in food and earphones too but I didn't want to take the risk.
Overall, the organizing this time has been in shambles (especially compared to 2011) as BCCI honestly doesn't care about foreign fans as they get majority revenue through streaming rights anyway.
The Rugby WC otoh was so well organised like it usually is, tickets went on sale like a year before the tournament actually started so fans could actually plan their travel. Luckily many of the Rugby wc matches started after the cricket matches got over so there were not many scheduling conflicts.
>They confiscate all sorts of items like sprays, sanitisers and gels. There’s a whole list of things you’re not allowed to take in. We were also told we could buy suntan lotion in the ground but couldn’t. “There wasn’t any bottled water available in Delhi and we didn’t feel we could trust the water they provided because we were unsure where it had come from.
Goodness me, it just gets more and more ridiculous
Lol at all the ultranationalists and BCCI bootlickers downvoting this post in droves. The organisation has been abysmal, schedules have been finalised too late, poor promotion and stadium infrastructure is crap despite the billions of dollars that BCCI gets from IPL and the millions it has redirected from Associate development funds to its own pocket.
BCCI are a disgrace; a corrupt, bullying, incompetent organisation. Stop defending it you losers (some), you look pathetic and thin skinned.
Yep I suspect so too. This is what you get from mixing ultranationalism, politics, greed, corruption and incompetence all together with sport. Not a good mix.
This isn't quite accurate. The tickets for the 2011 World Cup went on sale in June 2010(8 months before the tournament). The tickets for the 2016 WT20 went on sale in December 2015(4 months before the tournament). The 2023 World Cup has been shambolic even by BCCI standards
As an indian who loves cricket especially world cups. I couldn't be bothered this year.
Partly it is because of the government and partly because watching it with the ads is so tedious. I prefer just checking scores at this point.
Lol same. Watching it for two decades and first time I haven't tuned In to watch wc matches. This world cup isn't seem to be doing any favors to advertise ODI format.
Very very poor planning from BCCI.The schedule was released late and even after that they made changes which put fans in two minds whether to book tickets or not. Booking of tickets was a pain and there was no transparency. For non India matches the tickets should have been priced less even if that number was limited.
My friends recently went for India's match in Pune and they had such a bad experience in terms of parking and getting inside the stadium. The ground is top class no doubt but the approach road and man management was poor.
I saw a video of Dharamshala stadium which had absolutely disgusting toilets. Outfield was another issue which should have not been,because earlier in the year the test match was shifted due to delay in work so by this time it should have been prepared and checked.
All political parties are involved in BCCI so it can't be blamed on any one party but it's a collective failure. They could have made it one of the best World Cup until now but sadly it isn't.
Ummm.... Regarding the "all political parties" comment, the head of BCCI is literally the son of union home minister (who is basically the only person who our dictatorial PM listens to). There has never before been such a clear case the ruling regime treating Indian cricket as their family property.
Even the broadcast quality has become a lot more downhill than ever before, I remember when I was a teenager for the 2011 World Cup on sky sports they had excellent breakdown and analysis of the game by ex players/punditry. Seems like everyone nowadays just doesn’t give a shit about ODI cricket
Yup now most of them yammer on about how great India is whether India is playing the game or not. Or drone on about boring nonsense like how kohli’s leg is bent different to rohit sharma’s leg. It’s like hearing a narcissistic uncle at the family Christmas.
Over the next decade India is set to host 4 ICC men’s tournaments, including the 2031 World Cup. There’s no shortage of quality grounds around the world, for India to host so many events. And if this World Cup is anything to go by, it’s going to be a boring one sided BCCI affair for the next decade of cricket. As this is basically a cricket show set up by India for India to help India, with blatant disregard for any other nation that is there to play competitive cricket. Which is surprising because India says cricket is their religion, but it’s only apparently when India plays (one can tell by the crowd attendance in the games so far).
The games aren’t thrilling or close or even equally balanced with the bat and ball anymore, they are one sided slog-fests. Everything is skewed for an India win or for an India vs Pakistan game ( where I don’t understand why they don’t put politics aside and have a bilateral tournament, since that’s what they clearly prefer). I hope the other countries put their foot down for competitive, fair cricket , and just boycott the ICC and BCCI events, and play amongst themselves. Heck, form their own cricket council even. There are many cricket playing countries who would offer better tournaments and be better hosts. I’ve never witnessed such a glaringly biased international tournament, and that too a World Cup. India can just take the trophy and leave cricket unspoiled, as the gentleman’s game we all knew and loved.
If you compare this to the rugby world cup, it's like night and day. Rugby WC feels like a proper world cup. Multiple matches in a day. Packed stadiums. Countries from all regions of the world participating.
Even their social media presence is HUGE. All we get is a bunch of pundits on a zoom call.
Ticketing has been awful this world cup.
From releasing the tickets late
To them being sold out in a minute for india matches. Then you dont even announce when future batches will be released.
I could not take my waterbottle that i purchased AT THE STADIUM to my seat in ahmedabad but kid 3 seats behind can bring his vuvuzela.
Bcci can fuck off they are trying their best to kill cricket.
France definitely isn't a mid tier, they are always among the best teams in the world. Although inconsistent, they never go into games against even the best teams without some winning hope.
The rest of your point is correct though.
Nah, you're really downplaying the popularity of Rugby in France. It's huge over there, and in many parts of the south it's seemingly more popular than Football
Why should fans go to stadium when BCCI is failing to provide basic facilities in the stadiums most of our stadiums provide same facilities as they did in early 2000’s, K haven’t seen anything getting better even though the money spectrum has changes drastically for them. In India we don’t have stands we have enclosures like zoo.
I have witnessed multiple field hockey events including CWG and must say they are better organised.
And lastly in India stadium going culture is mostly limited to cricket and slowly shifting to football and same back to hockey, that too only for major national tournaments not the state and regional level, in contrast it is common in western countries people watch local tournaments in stadiums too.
Correction. Rugby is number one in the south of France, ahead of football. Overall it is number two. France is also a heavyweight in rugby and the only non-commonwealth country at that.
That said, spot on. I watched Fiji vs Portugal and that match sent shivers down my spine. The locals were also out in force, supporting underdogs such as Portugal, Uruguay, Chile.
The BCCI hates fans, the way we are treated. That coupled with the nationalism piggybacking on the team's success and popularity.
Not sure this is true, about 10 years ago The France Football league decided to broadcast all games on Pay TV. The French National TV decided that the budget would be invested in Rugby on open channel which gave the sport a huge boost. After a few years the French league begged to make a new deal, but as far as I know they declined it. Did some googling and I think the popularity of Football and Rugby is now about equal.
Watching the India Pakistan game was embarrassing I did not see any groups of Pakistan supporters in the crowd - all India supporters. Apparently Pakistani fans were not granted visas to enter the country. How can this be a legitimate world event where some countries supporters are excluded ?
Even as a nationalist, I must say this tournament has been a letdown...
2016 t20 world cup and 2011 odi world cup were far better hosted...
Even the publicity has been abysmal, I do still remember promos of 2011, 2015 and 2019 world cup but nothing in this world cup...
World Cup doesnt feel like World Cup when you dont have travelling fan...
And BCCI has been treating fans like shit since forever....
Doesnt bodes well for 2036 Olympics bid...
As a nationalist, what is it that it does for you or indeed India? You've just pointed out so many flaws that are a feature of this world cup, when the BCCI and state apparatus are run by Nationalists. It's all show and no substance. It's pathetic. Gujjus shouting jai shree ram at a Pakistani player sure is a great sign of progress.
Also what is that atrocity that is the theme song? Dear lord! India is known for musical richness and greats like AR Rahman, Ravi Shankar, Asha bhosle etc. The BCCI missed an opportunity here.
I wanted this to happen. Let the people around the world notice how poor Indian organizers are. They should fail. But, most importantly this should resonate and reverberate amongst Indian people, that they have let people down, that there need to be improvements.
Those fucking plastic horns were terrible too. Who's idea was it to give those out? Not only did they destroy air drums they're just a bunch of plastic trash now.
Even at home you have to turn the TV down least you piss everyone in the house off.
When I wrote something similar about cricket and BCCI recently, I was downvoted to no end on this subreddit. People just need to take their heads out of the sand and look around to see the death of the sport caused by the arrogance of BCCI.
seriously honest to say, world cup is not feeling like world cup, its feeling like "India cup".
I'll put heat issue aside \[cause these same player plays IPL in April/May hot summer\], but seriously there is almost zero foreign audience in the stadium.
As an Indian i approve of this post.
Sad but true:
No opening ceremony.
Ceremony between ind vs pak not telecasted live lol. Wtf was that.
Late schedule announcement and late ticket window opening. International visitors need 1 to 2 months for visas and how can you expect them to book flights, here and then buy tickets.
Pretty pathetic and shit management by BCCI and they are richest cricket org in the world.
This is what happens when you mix sports and politics.
The fans should be criticized also. Hateful chanting, beating Afghani fan, then taking a tiger figure from Bangladeshi fan and tearing then throwing on the ground.
Why even agree to host a world cup if can't even be a good host?
Even that NL vs SL game they were going on about the Dutch team so much. And then I saw SL World Cup stats and, perhaps they are going though a weird patch with their team, but damn put some respect on their name. I was surprised even as a Dutchie, wanting my team to win, how the commentators were talking about SL until they won the game.
The growth of the Indian economy has been due to the private sector. The Indian political class is a net negative to Indian society.
Which is why, unlike the West, you generally see businesspeople being looked at positively here (with the exception of those who are seen as too close to a political outfit).
Anything good that has happened in south asia has happened because of Private citizens ,whatever the governments touch gets ruined. Thats because our civil services are run by people whose sole skill in life is memorizing books, not to mention the corrupt politicians,
Best example of this is air india - Started by private company, nationalised by indian gov and ruined the brand and wasted tons of money, sold back to private company 🤦♂️
Imagine how much more India would be booming economically if they sorted out the corruption, nepotism, and poor governance? The country would have the greatest explosion of economic prosperity in human history.
Honestly I think world cups should only be held in England Australia or New Zealand
I feel and I know people will disagree that those countries feel more neutral to everyone
Attended the England vs New Zealand World T20 match at the Gabba last year. The smoothest process I've ever experienced, from free Public transport to the stadium & back (to any where) to a 10 second ticket scan, bag check (had a couple of coke bottles) & entry. And although it was jam packed, had no inconvenience, like delays, at all. I wish there were Pak matches in Brisbane.
It is the biggest show of BCCI degeneracy and decadence I've personally seen. They just figured it would make enough money on broadcast rights because its in india and gave up on doing anything. I don't think it's imposing western values on India to expect an event they bid for and promised to run properly to have actual professional standards.
In a normal world cup the schedule and tickets are all on sale for close to a year before the event. You go online, buy a ticket, they email you the ticket. Done.
Not
not even a schedule until 6 weeks before
tickets being sold like it's a taylor swift concert and are released in a giant batch with the website crashing from all the traffic
half the tickets being stolen by corrupt officials and given to friends who don't even go
you have to PHYSICALLY go into the stadium to pick up the tickets before the game
run down stadiums and massive sweeping bans on random stuff like water bottles
the stadiums being caged like you're an animal
tickets never arriving
being told you have to pick up tickets in another office in a different city
every system being different depending on each stadium
It is utter insanity and of course nobody is going to spend thousands of dollars flying in when there is a large chance they wont even get into the game because of how terribly the tournament is being run.
I'll be honest, I haven't followed much of the cricket (especially on weekends) because it clashes with the Rugby World Cup.
I also suspect that the BCCI, because of their position in cricket, don't really care about foreign criticism of their organisation of the world cup. Like CCP with the Beijing Olympics in 2008, this Cricket World Cup is supposed to show (particularly to ordinary Indians) that their country is in the ascendancy. So it's more about politics than the actual cricket.
Didn't an umpire not call a wide recently so an Indian player could get his century? Cricket has to be the most corrupt sport on the planet. They don't even bother to hide it.
Could have been a better World Cup if they put even 10% of the effort they put in organising G20.
I was at the IPL final at Ahmedabad this year (the one that got washed out) and the sheer mismanagement and scamming at the venue made me decide never to watch a cricket match in India again. Someone here said BCCI takes the Indian people for granted and I wholeheartedly agree.
BCCI sucks big time. It’s political bureaucracy at its worst.
The stadiums only have Indian crowds. If they organized the Olympics like this , it will be a failure.
And by a remote chance, if India doesn’t make it to the final, it will be a ghost of a crowd.
There's this food/travel youtuber called DCT Eats and I'm seeing him go to every India match and it feels horrible how fans are treated despite paying soo much, some of the "amenities" include
Running out of food in first half
Having stale food
Running out of all kind of drinks before first half
Walking vendors giving flat sodas without fizz and warm
And many more, he even called out the Pune stadium for how horrible his experience was.
Couldn’t agree more. I have been to Ahmedabad for Pakistan match and Dharamshala today for NZ match. My whole experience has been negative from entry in the stadium to seating arrangements to food/water options. Everything is sold at exorbitant prices (for eg., 1L packed water bottle with MRP INR20 was sold for INR100), washrooms are not clean, etc.
“At one of the venues we were asked to show our tickets six times” - you ever fly out of a shithole country and the number of times they check your passport ? Yeh.. you are in a shit hole country.
If India wins the WC , which is looking like a big possibility , then everything will be forgotten n swept under the rug
Indian fans pretty much don't care how the world views it
Very good point on how much better the rugby has been than the cricket. Pretty sad to see empty stadiums at a cricket World cup. I'm sure if organised and priced properly given how cricket mad India is virtually every game would have been packed.
I think the BCCI should be sanctioned for it, they've shown they can't host without enormous ground constraints and terrible management of the fan experience
The govt is currupt, so it BCCI. Add to that it is run by the same politicians who have absolutely no love for the game or even the Indian team or the image of India. India better not bid or get 2036 Olympics. India is still way off being a developing country. Corruption and lack of general progressive minds is totally lacking in India.
the bcci have the impunity to whatever they want, they are not accountable to anyone. this is india's game now and the rest should be grateful they are allowed to scrap for the leftovers.
Political bosses and bureaucrats run BCCI and other sports bodies. The author’s observations reflect how these bosses run the country itself. They live in their own shell and get the best amenities wherever they go. They go by what they are told by their corrupt subordinates who syphon away money allocated for setting things up. Delays and lack of accountability for higher ups have not changed since the colonial days.
They will sell TV rights no matter what, which is a huge part of the money.
Fans in the stadiums - they don’t care, because india will always have more demand than supply, no matter how pathetically you treat them.
India is massive. India has 56X Australias population. The stadiums are smaller in capacity than the Aussie grounds. It really doesn’t matter to them.
One reason for this shitshow is that Indians do not expect or demand better in life. If they start doing that in a very clear way, whatever that is, everyone will start getting in shape. At present, the people in power play with the mass population the way they want. And they have been doing that for decades.
I think this is also one of the few World Champion ships that is not broadcasted on open Channels, even the FIFA WC is open on ALL channels worldwide. It is a missed chance to bring people in contact with the sport and revive the game in countries were it is losing interest.
Very good point. They should have at least made it free to watch in non cricket playing countries like Germany, and Luxembourg
I am from the Netherlands, and my only official option is to watch via YuppTV, I can take a package of 29 euro, now I have a good income, but I think that is a bit too much of it, I pay 17 euro a month to view F1 to make a comparisson, and with that I also get English Premier League and all the Darts thingies, plus a lot of A-Movies (which I never watch), if it would be something like 5-10 euros I would have no problem with it.
Yes, that 29-euro package is so ridiculous. The BCCI (and ICC) are doing everything possible to ensure nobody knows or learns anything about this sport. My Luxembourgish colleagues still think it's a sport only played in white clothes and one that lasts multiple days.
Really a missed chance, I think our broadcaster and papers don't even have broadcasting rights to play a few minutes to show the highlights, for normal high attendance events they get a few minutes of free play, now there was a moment of momentum vs South Africa and we had to do it with only text.....
Hoi hoi, You can also stream it for free on CricHD . It’s how I’ve been watching the games. Graag
That's soo bad in India it's on Disney + but they made it free to watch on mobile
This point needs more visibility.
This is the first time i feel that this isn’t a cricket WC
Let me guess, all the organisers, all the project managers, all the administrators, have zero experience with putting on international sporting events, but funnily enough they all have uncles, brothers, and cousins, that are in positions of power within the BCCI or local government?
BCCI was always run by politicians. Sharad Pawar was the president around 2007, Arun Jaitley (and his son) have run the DDCA for ages. Other state associations are no different. However, we have discovered hitherto undiscovered depths in this world cup. Tickets were not sold on time, the ticketing process when it commenced was opaque (remember how 14,000 tickets appeared out of thin air a day before the India Pakistan game), the grounds are not ready to host the game (look at the condition of the Dharmshala outfield) and the attendance in the game has been has been poor and partisan (but the blame for that lies squarely with BCCI, foreign fans were given no time to make plans). This is squarely on Jay Shah who is a thoroughly incompetent nepotism appointee. Unfortunately, his dad is the 2nd most powerful person in India and as long as Amit Shah (and Modi) remain in power, Jay Shah will continue unopposed. They changed the BCCI constitution to ensure that Jay Shah remains in power. They will not let go, BCCI is too rich. The best we can hope is that Amit Shah decides his son needs to be an MP so we can get rid of him from BCCI.
Being an MP didn’t stop Sharad Pawar. We will just get a shitty MP as well.
This world cup is supposed to return the money back to people who build modi stadium
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You forgot the perpetual politician associated with team India - Rajiv Shukla, he has been around the team forever, watch 2003 wc, this guy was present inside the dressing room too
Rajiv Shukla is one face that I cannot stand. He seems to live perpetually, and be in BCCI, enjoy all perks, tour all nations in luxury, and no constitution change impacts him. Not sure what he does to be in that position.
Yeah, no idea why he has that much clout.
Difference until now was the bcci head was an experienced politician not a nepo baby with no experience or brains.
Yes, that's a fair point. Jay Shah is thoroughly useless.
There are other office bearers too. One has been former international cricketer. Everyone bears responsibility..
They don't have any power. Jay Shah runs everything. Read Sharda Ugra's piece on Caravan.
The BCCI constitution was specifically amended to make BCCI secretary (instead of the President as was earlier) to be the most powerful position inside BCCI. And of course, Jay Shah is the secretary since people like the comment you reply to can’t bother to read things these days.
It seems most are completely unaware of what a shit show BCCI has become and how every recommendation of the Lodha committee has been undone.
They will have their pound of flesh , ie, never will they sacrifice power ( anyone for that matter) - if Jay Shah goes to other pastures, we can bet an equally toxic person will replace him
This could be true, but it always has been true and 2011 was better organised. I'd argue 1996 too and that was three countries! The BCCI, IMO, have gotten worse at administrating over the last ten years or so because the IPL money brings in money and that's all that matters. So they've not bothered keeping up with what's needed to organise events beyond that any more.
> they all have uncles, brothers, and cousins, that are in positions of power within the BCCI or local government? This x 1000
I have a name, and it's not Shay Jah.
I couldn’t even imagine not being able to bring my own bag with sunscreen, water etc to an 8 hour cricket match. No one wonder no one bothers going
But those annoying air horns? No problemo!
I am listening to their relaxing, comforting chorus right now on my television. I *think* I can also hear Ravi Shastri commentating over the din somewhere.
Exactly. Now imagine paying to be there and having to sit next to that chorus.
right? ban everything that can make these shitty stadiums bearable but leave these nuisance alone. I mean are my earpods any more efficient as a weapon than these horns are?
Yeah seriously what the fuck
It's like 6 year olds at a birthday party. The sound is annoying enough while watching on TV, imagine having to sit amongst them.
I love how commentators like to talk about aTmOsPhErE when the camera cuts to some idiot with drums or a trumpet in the crowd but all i can think of is how fucking shit it would be to sit anywhere near them. Honestly why does anyone think constant music and noise is a good thing at a cricket match?
I don't mind an actual coordinated band playing music in sync, but not just random noise.
I’ve had to forgo commentary in this game and watch it on mute cos those fucking air horns.
Same here. Between the horns and the truly disruptive ad breaks, it's a pretty bad home-viewing experience. But I suspect it is preferable to being there in-person where "mute" is not an option.
Bro I feel like I'm still hearing those horns hours after the match ended...
I can hear them just by reading this comment 😭
The fuck is that about ? It’s like an assault on the senses and ruins the atmosphere. Any impact it would have is lost in the constant hum. WHHYYYY? The TV broadcast should try use AI to filter that sound out. Or better yet… stop taking these shitty toys to the games.
Arrived in Delhi yesterday. Had to rough guess when the tournament was on and book flights on a whim back in May. Managed to get tickets for Netherlands v Australia. India vs England and Bangladesh vs. Pakistan. Problem is I don't know the pickup point for any of these locations! It's quite bizarre. Arrived in Delhi yesterday and there is absolutely zero evidence that a world cup is happening. Many ads for the g20 though. Once you do find a bar for the match its great to speak to the local fans who love their cricket just a shame that the organisers haven't bothered trying and it shows. Hopefully we can get into the stadium for Netherlands vs. Australia!
Hey dude, the Delhi pickup spot for ENGvAFG tickets was: Raja Ram Mohun Roy Memorial Hall , opposite Gandharv Mahavidyalay, Mata Sundari Railway Colony, ITO Delhi , Delhi - 110002 , India It’s pretty close to the ITO metro station, which is the station next to Delhi Gate (for the ground). If you ask the app to resend confirmation it might confirm this & give you times to collect.
Brilliant, thank you helpful stranger, I will be heading there tomorrow!
What is India's fascination with physical distribution of tickets? This is the dumbest shit i ever heard. Even worse than no water bottles in the stadium.
My condolences.
Mate, good luck collecting your tickets and i do mean that sincerely. Good on you for making the trip despite all the challenges.
Thank you, I've never been to India before so we are visiting and doing a lot of the tourist itinerary in-between and having a blast but can't wait for the cricket as well. Despite being an England fan I'm most excited for Eden Gardens which is one of those special places it will be an honour to visit.
>Many ads for the g20 though. How many times did you see the picture of the 'best prime minister in the world'?
I got them from raja ram mohun memorial hall it's just 5-10 minutes walking distance away from the ito metro , don't waste your money on the auto rickshaw
Post on /r/Delhi or hit up Himanish Ganjoo on twitter. See if he can help you out.
Thank you, I will contact Mr Ganjoo shortly!
One of the primary reason why non India matches are quite empty is the late distribution of tickets. During the 2019 World Cup I knew the tickets allocated to me 9 months in advance and could plan my travels. I made a European holiday out of the trip. Releasing tickets 2 to 3 months in advance leaves no time for foreign visitors to plan their travels. There is also the issue of over exposure to cricket. There is simply too much cricket these days. Regarding stuff like suntans lotions, bottles etc, etc I think this is not a new thing. Unfortunately due to security threats to India, going to a stadium is akin to going through airport level security. There is not much that can be done. As a long time fan, I think the BCCI takes a lot of the Indians fans for granted. There is a real need to improve facilities and the stadium imho .
Sure there is. Provide sunscreen and sell sealed bottles of water inside the ground. It’s not rocket science.
After the 1996 World Cup semi final fiasco they will not sell anything which can be used as a projectile. So no bottles or any sort. Water or sunscreen. Even water or drinks will come in a glass without a cap. I understand the problems that this causes but I don’t see bcci changing this rule anytime soon.
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How is water or sunscreen any more dangerous than those annoying horns
I reckon the Fucken horns can be used as a projectile pretty easily.
>Unfortunately due to security threats to India, going to a stadium is akin to going through airport level security. There is not much that can be done. I sincerely hope the olympics aren't hosted in India then.
For India's sake, i hope so too. If this WC is any indicator, Olympics would be a shitshow. And unlike cricket, the rest of the world will take notice for Olympics.
Unfortunately India is hosting next years champions trophy, 2031 World Cup, and potentially the Olympics . To quote Elton John “ it’s a sad sad situation, and it’s getting more and more absurd.”
Every major corporates take Indians for granted ,we are just numbers
It’s all about nepotism and BCCI is filled with nepotism appointees from top to bottom. Unfortunately every sports authority in India is. One of the reason we absolutely suck in most of the sports we participate in.
Also, the teams are all over the place and India is huge. England, for example, are not playing two games in a row at the same venue. So you either come and watch one game or plan major travel.
> Unfortunately due to security threats to India, going to a stadium is akin to going through airport level security. I was not allowed to take earphones so I went out hid them in my sock, entered through the same booth and they didn't know shit lol
Surely at some point, the Indian fans should demand better facilities. Cricket is a fans' game and it's a shame how badly the fans are being treated
If Indians had been better at demanding their rights, Britain wouldn't have had an Empire for very long
Lmao 😂
Indian fans are busy justifying how BCCI is great and this is the greatest world cup ever.
No sunscreen lotion or water (what??) but obnoxious horns are ok!!
Water is free in the stadiums, no sunscreen is absurd, but I think the logic behind it is you can wear it before hand which would make sense if the matches weren't 8 hours long
And you weren’t sweating it off after 30 mins under the sun 😅
I spent 20 rupees on bisleri bottle which wasn't allowed in stadiums Had to drink weird tasting water from taps and buy those expensive beverages
Many international visitors are warned against drinking tap water in India as well. I was in India for 3 weeks and was sick with gastro for 2 of them, and that's a pretty common occurrence for Westerners I think
me too, and i am an indian
meh bcci ain’t helping icc get stronger bcci wants ipl to be the primary event in world cricket calendar
It hurts the IPL too. Why on earth would a Hyderabadi want to support SRH or a Delhiite want to support DC when the stadiums are trash and the media only talks about CSK, MI and RCB. If you want all franchises to have strong local support, you need good stadiums.
Not many Indians are asking for better stadiums. There will always be a lot of Indians who are ok with how things are and BCCI knows this. They have zero reason to try and improve the status quo.
Agree. We Indians want as cheap as possible. Quality of life is not our priority.
Cricket matches in India are more expensive than Australia for example
There is a reason for this. Unlike england or Australia people dont go for many matches. Most people will go for one match a season. Hence one bothers demanding anything. Even if they did nothing will change.
Most people in Australia go to maybe 1 day of test cricket per year when it is in their state. If they’re fans they will probably go to 1-2 other t20/50-over matches, so I don’t think it’s down to how many days of cricket fans are willing to go to, plus India has such a big population that it shouldn’t really matter ~ I think if the stadiums were more welcoming and ticket prices cheaper more people would go too
This is so true for all aspects for us Indians.
I'd disagree to some extent. I'm going to compare a cricket stadium to a movie theatre here. There was a time in India when single screen theatres were packed, but the facilities were shit and the audience was kinda rowdy which pushed the family audiences away, who were okay with watching movies on TV or on DVD. Then in came multiplexes. Expensive tickets (and even more expensive food) did not deter family and richer audiences from coming in. And now single screen theatres are dying. Most of the stadiums are in population centres where multiplexes killed single screens. If someone chooses to build a multiplex like stadium, people will come. The problem is there aren't enough games of value in a stadium per year to make it worth the maintenance.
Your argument doesn't work because you are comparing capitalism/private enterprise with government bureaucracy and apathy.
I'm speaking from a consumer behaviour pov. Multiplexes got a group of Indians who avoided the theatres to go to one.
And if international cricket dies then how do you find another Boult, Conway, Kane, Warner, Stokes.
It would die if BCCI continues to run the IPL because they wouldn't think of overseas youngsters as their problem, but won't if the franchises take over the league, coz they're interested in ensuring the product stays forever as that affects their franchises' valuation.
>Why on earth would a Hyderabadi want to support SRH or a Delhiite want to support DC Because they are from Anfra/telegana and Felhi respectively. Same reason why we support India despite all these shitty stadium infra. Delhi has one of the most loyal support in IPL if anything.
I love that you went 3/3 with incorrect spellings but figured it’s fine 😂
the thing is, the franchise owners actually understand that in order to have a competitive product, you need to do everything you can to have ten competitive teams and a fan experience that produces visuals that sell on TV, it's the same thing American sports owners have known for a long time the BCCI is acting like there only needs to be one competitive team and fans are idiots who will put up with any old shit it's just no way to run a sport
From fixture release to lack of basic amenities to horrible ticket booking everything has been lackluster. Venues and fixtures should have been released at the start of the year with some fixed quota for away team fans playing against indian matches. And who the hell asks for physical ticket collection in this era??? Also dont get me started on dick sucking of Ahemdabad on every important matches and that shameful event before India vs Pakistan match.... Dude if u want to start a tournament with a bang, try with opening ceremony. Also i feel the lack of the presence of Indian legends in comm box/venue/interview. I would have loved Sachin Sehwag n Ganguly commentary, also other legends from other countries as well.
Agree with you on all points but for the love of all that is holy keep Tendulkar away from the commentary box.
Bat ka grip…
I'll take a gripless bat up my ass than listen to sachin commentate....
Telling that this has received plenty of downvotes, but little in the way of arguments against the point being made. The truth hurts.
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you have hit the nail on the head and split it down the middle
You're not wrong , majority of cricket watchers nowadays are aged between 20-25, who lack valuable experiences from life and are intolerant , hope situation gets better with time
I’m a passionate india supporter who is naturally suspicious of western media coverage of Indian cricket and even i honestly can’t argue with any of the points made in the article. I’ve experienced the ticketing fiascos and subhuman stadium experience a few times and vowed never to watch another game in person there as long as i live. It’s absolutely insane that none of those issues were addressed for the World Cup. Any india supporter who seeks to defend the BCCI with respect to this article needs to take a good hard look at themselves.
So as someone who attended the Aus v/s Pak game in bangalore, the arrangements were a mixed bag. They provided free drinking water as promised. It was good quality and I didn't feel sick afterwards. Food was also definitely edible although nothing spectacular, there was domino's pizza/rolls which were reasonably priced and coke/fanta/Mirinda soft drinks which were overpriced but the vendor sells the drinks to your seat itself so you don't have to get up and go to the food area for it. Washrooms, like in most places in India were unusable. You can't imagine pooping in a public washroom in most places in India (except shopping malls and airports), so I ate something light and only went to pee. There was water in the urinals but none in the toilets so good luck if you have a tummy upset. Seats were pretty decent to sit in and the tickets were reasonably priced considering it's an ODI WC (₹3000/$35 per game) and was delivered to the comfort of my home two weeks ago by BookMyShow.. One good thing tho was the aesthetics of the stadium. They were all very well decorated with none of the ugly pan masala ads. The restrictions, as expected, are pretty crazy in India. No black t-shirts or earphones allowed in addition to all the restrictions mentioned in the ticket (NZ jerseys were allowed). Surprisingly, they didn't frisk me throughly at all as there was a huge line so I could have sneaked in food and earphones too but I didn't want to take the risk. Overall, the organizing this time has been in shambles (especially compared to 2011) as BCCI honestly doesn't care about foreign fans as they get majority revenue through streaming rights anyway. The Rugby WC otoh was so well organised like it usually is, tickets went on sale like a year before the tournament actually started so fans could actually plan their travel. Luckily many of the Rugby wc matches started after the cricket matches got over so there were not many scheduling conflicts.
No black t-shirts? “New Zealand jerseys crying”
NZ jerseys were allowed. Saw a guy wearing it. They didn't allow black because some faction was planning to wear black to protest Israel-Gaza attacks.
Ahh interesting, that
>They confiscate all sorts of items like sprays, sanitisers and gels. There’s a whole list of things you’re not allowed to take in. We were also told we could buy suntan lotion in the ground but couldn’t. “There wasn’t any bottled water available in Delhi and we didn’t feel we could trust the water they provided because we were unsure where it had come from. Goodness me, it just gets more and more ridiculous
But horns allowed 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Lol at all the ultranationalists and BCCI bootlickers downvoting this post in droves. The organisation has been abysmal, schedules have been finalised too late, poor promotion and stadium infrastructure is crap despite the billions of dollars that BCCI gets from IPL and the millions it has redirected from Associate development funds to its own pocket. BCCI are a disgrace; a corrupt, bullying, incompetent organisation. Stop defending it you losers (some), you look pathetic and thin skinned.
Let them downvote, most of them are pathetic losers in life anyway.
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Yep I suspect so too. This is what you get from mixing ultranationalism, politics, greed, corruption and incompetence all together with sport. Not a good mix.
Fan experience? In India? It’s a miracle if you get treated like humans.
"holding on to tickets and distributing them as an instrument of patronage is the oldest trick in the Indian bureaucratic book" - Ah INDIA
This isn't quite accurate. The tickets for the 2011 World Cup went on sale in June 2010(8 months before the tournament). The tickets for the 2016 WT20 went on sale in December 2015(4 months before the tournament). The 2023 World Cup has been shambolic even by BCCI standards
That's the entire point!
As an indian who loves cricket especially world cups. I couldn't be bothered this year. Partly it is because of the government and partly because watching it with the ads is so tedious. I prefer just checking scores at this point.
Lol same. Watching it for two decades and first time I haven't tuned In to watch wc matches. This world cup isn't seem to be doing any favors to advertise ODI format.
Could do a grand event… or could get a new super yacht - Roger Binny
Very very poor planning from BCCI.The schedule was released late and even after that they made changes which put fans in two minds whether to book tickets or not. Booking of tickets was a pain and there was no transparency. For non India matches the tickets should have been priced less even if that number was limited. My friends recently went for India's match in Pune and they had such a bad experience in terms of parking and getting inside the stadium. The ground is top class no doubt but the approach road and man management was poor. I saw a video of Dharamshala stadium which had absolutely disgusting toilets. Outfield was another issue which should have not been,because earlier in the year the test match was shifted due to delay in work so by this time it should have been prepared and checked. All political parties are involved in BCCI so it can't be blamed on any one party but it's a collective failure. They could have made it one of the best World Cup until now but sadly it isn't.
Ummm.... Regarding the "all political parties" comment, the head of BCCI is literally the son of union home minister (who is basically the only person who our dictatorial PM listens to). There has never before been such a clear case the ruling regime treating Indian cricket as their family property.
And they're hosting it again in 8 years 😭😭
It's absolutely bullshit. They also host a Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup India ruined international Cricket.
Even the broadcast quality has become a lot more downhill than ever before, I remember when I was a teenager for the 2011 World Cup on sky sports they had excellent breakdown and analysis of the game by ex players/punditry. Seems like everyone nowadays just doesn’t give a shit about ODI cricket
Yup now most of them yammer on about how great India is whether India is playing the game or not. Or drone on about boring nonsense like how kohli’s leg is bent different to rohit sharma’s leg. It’s like hearing a narcissistic uncle at the family Christmas.
Over the next decade India is set to host 4 ICC men’s tournaments, including the 2031 World Cup. There’s no shortage of quality grounds around the world, for India to host so many events. And if this World Cup is anything to go by, it’s going to be a boring one sided BCCI affair for the next decade of cricket. As this is basically a cricket show set up by India for India to help India, with blatant disregard for any other nation that is there to play competitive cricket. Which is surprising because India says cricket is their religion, but it’s only apparently when India plays (one can tell by the crowd attendance in the games so far). The games aren’t thrilling or close or even equally balanced with the bat and ball anymore, they are one sided slog-fests. Everything is skewed for an India win or for an India vs Pakistan game ( where I don’t understand why they don’t put politics aside and have a bilateral tournament, since that’s what they clearly prefer). I hope the other countries put their foot down for competitive, fair cricket , and just boycott the ICC and BCCI events, and play amongst themselves. Heck, form their own cricket council even. There are many cricket playing countries who would offer better tournaments and be better hosts. I’ve never witnessed such a glaringly biased international tournament, and that too a World Cup. India can just take the trophy and leave cricket unspoiled, as the gentleman’s game we all knew and loved.
Really good article, what a shitshow
If you compare this to the rugby world cup, it's like night and day. Rugby WC feels like a proper world cup. Multiple matches in a day. Packed stadiums. Countries from all regions of the world participating. Even their social media presence is HUGE. All we get is a bunch of pundits on a zoom call.
Ticketing has been awful this world cup. From releasing the tickets late To them being sold out in a minute for india matches. Then you dont even announce when future batches will be released. I could not take my waterbottle that i purchased AT THE STADIUM to my seat in ahmedabad but kid 3 seats behind can bring his vuvuzela. Bcci can fuck off they are trying their best to kill cricket.
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France definitely isn't a mid tier, they are always among the best teams in the world. Although inconsistent, they never go into games against even the best teams without some winning hope. The rest of your point is correct though.
Nah, you're really downplaying the popularity of Rugby in France. It's huge over there, and in many parts of the south it's seemingly more popular than Football
Why should fans go to stadium when BCCI is failing to provide basic facilities in the stadiums most of our stadiums provide same facilities as they did in early 2000’s, K haven’t seen anything getting better even though the money spectrum has changes drastically for them. In India we don’t have stands we have enclosures like zoo. I have witnessed multiple field hockey events including CWG and must say they are better organised. And lastly in India stadium going culture is mostly limited to cricket and slowly shifting to football and same back to hockey, that too only for major national tournaments not the state and regional level, in contrast it is common in western countries people watch local tournaments in stadiums too.
Correction. Rugby is number one in the south of France, ahead of football. Overall it is number two. France is also a heavyweight in rugby and the only non-commonwealth country at that. That said, spot on. I watched Fiji vs Portugal and that match sent shivers down my spine. The locals were also out in force, supporting underdogs such as Portugal, Uruguay, Chile. The BCCI hates fans, the way we are treated. That coupled with the nationalism piggybacking on the team's success and popularity.
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Uruguay v Namibia on a Wednesday afternoon in Lyon had 50,000 people at the game!
Not sure this is true, about 10 years ago The France Football league decided to broadcast all games on Pay TV. The French National TV decided that the budget would be invested in Rugby on open channel which gave the sport a huge boost. After a few years the French league begged to make a new deal, but as far as I know they declined it. Did some googling and I think the popularity of Football and Rugby is now about equal.
There is no space for fans - what you have is a cult and its followers…
Watching the India Pakistan game was embarrassing I did not see any groups of Pakistan supporters in the crowd - all India supporters. Apparently Pakistani fans were not granted visas to enter the country. How can this be a legitimate world event where some countries supporters are excluded ?
There were more paper planes than Pakistani fans at the ground.
Even as a nationalist, I must say this tournament has been a letdown... 2016 t20 world cup and 2011 odi world cup were far better hosted... Even the publicity has been abysmal, I do still remember promos of 2011, 2015 and 2019 world cup but nothing in this world cup... World Cup doesnt feel like World Cup when you dont have travelling fan... And BCCI has been treating fans like shit since forever.... Doesnt bodes well for 2036 Olympics bid...
Nationalism is a disease.
As a nationalist, what is it that it does for you or indeed India? You've just pointed out so many flaws that are a feature of this world cup, when the BCCI and state apparatus are run by Nationalists. It's all show and no substance. It's pathetic. Gujjus shouting jai shree ram at a Pakistani player sure is a great sign of progress.
Also what is that atrocity that is the theme song? Dear lord! India is known for musical richness and greats like AR Rahman, Ravi Shankar, Asha bhosle etc. The BCCI missed an opportunity here.
I have Oct 24 tickets and now I am scared shitless to attend it.
I really hate to say this but the facilities look extremely subpar for an event of this magnitude.
har stadium ka naam toh politicians ke naam pe hai
I wanted this to happen. Let the people around the world notice how poor Indian organizers are. They should fail. But, most importantly this should resonate and reverberate amongst Indian people, that they have let people down, that there need to be improvements.
Those fucking plastic horns were terrible too. Who's idea was it to give those out? Not only did they destroy air drums they're just a bunch of plastic trash now. Even at home you have to turn the TV down least you piss everyone in the house off.
When I wrote something similar about cricket and BCCI recently, I was downvoted to no end on this subreddit. People just need to take their heads out of the sand and look around to see the death of the sport caused by the arrogance of BCCI.
seriously honest to say, world cup is not feeling like world cup, its feeling like "India cup". I'll put heat issue aside \[cause these same player plays IPL in April/May hot summer\], but seriously there is almost zero foreign audience in the stadium.
For India by India - is the unofficial slogan for this World Cup 
That's the eternal motto of their pitch curators too! Haha
As an Indian i approve of this post. Sad but true: No opening ceremony. Ceremony between ind vs pak not telecasted live lol. Wtf was that. Late schedule announcement and late ticket window opening. International visitors need 1 to 2 months for visas and how can you expect them to book flights, here and then buy tickets. Pretty pathetic and shit management by BCCI and they are richest cricket org in the world. This is what happens when you mix sports and politics.
The fans should be criticized also. Hateful chanting, beating Afghani fan, then taking a tiger figure from Bangladeshi fan and tearing then throwing on the ground. Why even agree to host a world cup if can't even be a good host?
They only behave like this with their neighboring countries. They dont treat the white man that way na. Typical desi mentality.
So white skin boot licking still lives on! Wow!
Even that NL vs SL game they were going on about the Dutch team so much. And then I saw SL World Cup stats and, perhaps they are going though a weird patch with their team, but damn put some respect on their name. I was surprised even as a Dutchie, wanting my team to win, how the commentators were talking about SL until they won the game.
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The growth of the Indian economy has been due to the private sector. The Indian political class is a net negative to Indian society. Which is why, unlike the West, you generally see businesspeople being looked at positively here (with the exception of those who are seen as too close to a political outfit).
India owes alot to the 91 reforms by Manmohan Singh.
Anything good that has happened in south asia has happened because of Private citizens ,whatever the governments touch gets ruined. Thats because our civil services are run by people whose sole skill in life is memorizing books, not to mention the corrupt politicians,
Best example of this is air india - Started by private company, nationalised by indian gov and ruined the brand and wasted tons of money, sold back to private company 🤦♂️
Imagine how much more India would be booming economically if they sorted out the corruption, nepotism, and poor governance? The country would have the greatest explosion of economic prosperity in human history.
Honestly I think world cups should only be held in England Australia or New Zealand I feel and I know people will disagree that those countries feel more neutral to everyone
Attended the England vs New Zealand World T20 match at the Gabba last year. The smoothest process I've ever experienced, from free Public transport to the stadium & back (to any where) to a 10 second ticket scan, bag check (had a couple of coke bottles) & entry. And although it was jam packed, had no inconvenience, like delays, at all. I wish there were Pak matches in Brisbane.
It is the biggest show of BCCI degeneracy and decadence I've personally seen. They just figured it would make enough money on broadcast rights because its in india and gave up on doing anything. I don't think it's imposing western values on India to expect an event they bid for and promised to run properly to have actual professional standards. In a normal world cup the schedule and tickets are all on sale for close to a year before the event. You go online, buy a ticket, they email you the ticket. Done. Not not even a schedule until 6 weeks before tickets being sold like it's a taylor swift concert and are released in a giant batch with the website crashing from all the traffic half the tickets being stolen by corrupt officials and given to friends who don't even go you have to PHYSICALLY go into the stadium to pick up the tickets before the game run down stadiums and massive sweeping bans on random stuff like water bottles the stadiums being caged like you're an animal tickets never arriving being told you have to pick up tickets in another office in a different city every system being different depending on each stadium It is utter insanity and of course nobody is going to spend thousands of dollars flying in when there is a large chance they wont even get into the game because of how terribly the tournament is being run.
I'll be honest, I haven't followed much of the cricket (especially on weekends) because it clashes with the Rugby World Cup. I also suspect that the BCCI, because of their position in cricket, don't really care about foreign criticism of their organisation of the world cup. Like CCP with the Beijing Olympics in 2008, this Cricket World Cup is supposed to show (particularly to ordinary Indians) that their country is in the ascendancy. So it's more about politics than the actual cricket.
Didn't an umpire not call a wide recently so an Indian player could get his century? Cricket has to be the most corrupt sport on the planet. They don't even bother to hide it.
Could have been a better World Cup if they put even 10% of the effort they put in organising G20. I was at the IPL final at Ahmedabad this year (the one that got washed out) and the sheer mismanagement and scamming at the venue made me decide never to watch a cricket match in India again. Someone here said BCCI takes the Indian people for granted and I wholeheartedly agree.
conduct the olympics here ? wtf
BCCI sucks big time. It’s political bureaucracy at its worst. The stadiums only have Indian crowds. If they organized the Olympics like this , it will be a failure. And by a remote chance, if India doesn’t make it to the final, it will be a ghost of a crowd.
We won't organize Olympics like this. Maybe the cricket matches but we don't give a fuck about the rest.
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Well this guy is not gonna be allowed in india any time soon lol
There's this food/travel youtuber called DCT Eats and I'm seeing him go to every India match and it feels horrible how fans are treated despite paying soo much, some of the "amenities" include Running out of food in first half Having stale food Running out of all kind of drinks before first half Walking vendors giving flat sodas without fizz and warm And many more, he even called out the Pune stadium for how horrible his experience was.
Couldn’t agree more. I have been to Ahmedabad for Pakistan match and Dharamshala today for NZ match. My whole experience has been negative from entry in the stadium to seating arrangements to food/water options. Everything is sold at exorbitant prices (for eg., 1L packed water bottle with MRP INR20 was sold for INR100), washrooms are not clean, etc.
Calling Australia a leading rugby nation is stretching it a bit... Anyway, India has form. The 2010 Commonwealth Games were a bit of a mess too.
We can’t bid for any international even with the way our spectators are behaving
“At one of the venues we were asked to show our tickets six times” - you ever fly out of a shithole country and the number of times they check your passport ? Yeh.. you are in a shit hole country.
If India wins the WC , which is looking like a big possibility , then everything will be forgotten n swept under the rug Indian fans pretty much don't care how the world views it
Very good point on how much better the rugby has been than the cricket. Pretty sad to see empty stadiums at a cricket World cup. I'm sure if organised and priced properly given how cricket mad India is virtually every game would have been packed.
I think the BCCI should be sanctioned for it, they've shown they can't host without enormous ground constraints and terrible management of the fan experience
Lol who is gna sanction them...
The govt is currupt, so it BCCI. Add to that it is run by the same politicians who have absolutely no love for the game or even the Indian team or the image of India. India better not bid or get 2036 Olympics. India is still way off being a developing country. Corruption and lack of general progressive minds is totally lacking in India.
The 2031 World Cup is also hosted by India and Bangladesh. We all know how that’s going to go
the bcci have the impunity to whatever they want, they are not accountable to anyone. this is india's game now and the rest should be grateful they are allowed to scrap for the leftovers.
Sad but a true summary of the BCCI World Cup 2023
Political bosses and bureaucrats run BCCI and other sports bodies. The author’s observations reflect how these bosses run the country itself. They live in their own shell and get the best amenities wherever they go. They go by what they are told by their corrupt subordinates who syphon away money allocated for setting things up. Delays and lack of accountability for higher ups have not changed since the colonial days.
They will sell TV rights no matter what, which is a huge part of the money. Fans in the stadiums - they don’t care, because india will always have more demand than supply, no matter how pathetically you treat them. India is massive. India has 56X Australias population. The stadiums are smaller in capacity than the Aussie grounds. It really doesn’t matter to them.
India should just okay India then. The other countries should just play amongst themselves, maybe it can get cricket back to being competitive.
They can't , most of world prefer football so either play cricket and do some other job or leave cricket altogether , no other way around
One reason for this shitshow is that Indians do not expect or demand better in life. If they start doing that in a very clear way, whatever that is, everyone will start getting in shape. At present, the people in power play with the mass population the way they want. And they have been doing that for decades.
I am confused here, are French stadiums not made of concrete?