Has the gluttonous world of television rights bloated the administrators so much that they can afford to ignore the sight of glaringly empty stands?
It would seem that cricket in India would never run dry like a desert. And yet the plight of cricket stadiums today would suggest that the Sahara desert had arrived. Cricket has had a reputation for filling up stands to the brim, to dangerous levels where air to breathe seems on scarcity. However, the sights that have greeted cricket stadiums in India following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 have been lamentable in terms of population.
(Fortunately the World Cup escaped such a scenario else, the fate of one day cricket would once again have been brought under cynosure.)
It would seem that cricket administrators and channels with broadcasting rights feel little need to promote the game in terms of getting people to the stadium which would explain why cricketers these days play in front of barren seats and yawning, tired ground staff who fill up the few seats. Until recently it seemed a phenomenon restricted mainly to the sports that suffered from step motherly treatment in the face of cricket fanaticism in the country. However, the sheer glut of cricket that has made the sport unsustainable for watching for the spectators, which has become a primary reason that it is high time boards decided what was more important : brimming coffers in the short term with repercussions in the long run or sustaining returns on investment through pull backs?
However, the situation is grim enough that neither the administrators nor the broadcasters can overlook. Apparently gate revenue must count for little because there seems no sense of urgency to fill up the stands even late in the day. One explanation for that has to be the rates at which tickets are sold which makes it next to impossible for families to get themselves to see the action live. The second has to do with the shoddy treatment of spectators at the stadium with severe restrictions on what they can carry, over priced bottled waters and snacks, not to mention sanitation facilities.
The fact that some of the fans even complained of dusty, untended to seats speaks of just how granted spectators at the ground have been taken. Arguably while television viewing has been greatly enhanced through digital innovations and technological facilities, the powers that be have ignored one crucial quotient – it is the spectators at the stadium that create the atmosphere, it is with the stadium spectators that cricketers are buoyed to entertain and perform, and it is the spectators who make an event come alive to make it the most happening against the rivalry of other entertainment on offer. Watching with concern cricket with an empty background goes not make for good broadcasting. It is time boards and broadcasters realized that.
