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India is an extraordinary country. It first gets into your pores and then under your skin, in the best sense. Its cricket authorities, though, get on your goat.<\/p>\n
India has a moment with this World Cup, is not seizing it and evidently is unapologetic about it. There\u2019s an easy gauge of this: Australians are conspicuous by their absence. There\u2019s the odd green and gold T-shirt, but no tour groups, no cheer squads, no presence, oi oi oi.<\/p>\n
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The stands have not been full during this tournament.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n This is not the form of Australians at big international sporting events in the last 30 or 40 years. The ODI World Cup might not be the grail it once was, but it\u2019s not a trifle. England\u2019s case is even more acute. They usually form the biggest supporters groups of all, but the Barmy Army is more of a quirky quartet here. After Saturday, it might be a duo.<\/p>\n The explanation for all this absenteeism is easily divined. For reasons known only to itself, the BCCI released the schedule late and then changed it anyway. The allocation of venues was as much political as it was strategic; there are more group matches in the small, new and relatively hard to reach hill station of Dharamshala than there are in Kolkata\u2019s famous Eden Gardens or Mumbai\u2019s storied Wankhede stadium.<\/p>\n The release of tickets was slow and piecemeal and the pricing was opaque. For the workaday fan, no matter how dedicated, there was too much uncertainty, too great a risk.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that there are so few westerners; there are few anybodies. The other south Asian countries are minimally represented and Pakistanis have been thwarted altogether. In Bangalore, I met Indians who were supporting Pakistan just so that they had someone on their side.<\/p>\n This reinforces an old certainty that most people, when left to their own devices, get on well enough with most others. It\u2019s the politicians and ideologues who fight, using citizens as proxies.<\/p>\n Outnumbered: A Pakistan supporter flies the flag before the clash with India.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n We digress. The difficulty of getting into the cricket even or especially for locals is reflected in the sparsely patronised stands and terraces. The crowd for Australia\u2019s match against Pakistan in Bangalore was bigger than for its previous two matches, but it was far from a lockout.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not apathy. Indians\u2019 love of cricket might now be diffused across many formats and competitions, but it is as intense as ever. I met plenty enough shopkeepers and bellboys who would have loved to have gone to see Australia play in Lucknow and Bangalore, but couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n When at last there was a match at Wankhede, between South Africa and England, there was a crowd. It prompted veteran Indian cricket writer and observer of BCCI politics Kuldip Lal to say: \u201cWill always happen when matches are allotted to centres with cricketing culture like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. And not based on political whims.\u201d<\/p>\n Between the ICC and the BCCI, they\u2019re staging this World Cup behind closed doors. Before you at me about Ahmedabad and India and Pakistan, that was always going to be a blockbuster. It\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s stadium and it\u2019s Modi\u2019s show.<\/p>\n The formulation ICC\/BCCI is used here advisedly. The ICC is nowhere to be seen. Per Daniel Brettig in these pages, per Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur, this really is a BCCI event. Arthur was reviled for saying so, but that doesn\u2019t mean he was wrong. The ICC is displeased about half-empty stadiums, but won\u2019t say so publicly.<\/p>\n Deductively, the BCCI doesn\u2019t care about through-the-gate fans. This is not necessarily self sabotage, it\u2019s just not a priority. They don\u2019t have to care. For any given cricket match, enough will come anyway to create a basic spectacle.<\/p>\n The governing body\u2019s fixation is with TV. That\u2019s how most people get their World Cup, and how the ICC\/BCCI funds it, and on TV it doubtlessly looks spectacular. No loosely attached hoardings tumble perilously from stadium rooftops on the not-so-small screen.<\/p>\n The Barmy Army has been more like a quirky quartet at this World Cup.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n It\u2019s sad, because this indifference to spectators sits at odds with the warm welcome accorded to the few international fans who are here. Yes, there was an ugly incident when a Bangladeshi uber-fan had his stuffed tiger mascot torn apart by Indian supporters in Pune, but to dwell on that would be to judge the many by the few. I\u2019ve seen and felt only goodwill.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s not pretend that this World Cup is anything other than a BCCI benefit. At that India-Bangladesh match in Pune, a point came when there were just enough runs left for Virat Kohli to make a century if KL Rahul sat on his splice, which he did. It\u2019s the age we live in. Kohli got his century, broadcasters got their imagery and the show rolled on.<\/p>\n Why does or should this all matter to faraway fans? Practically, it doesn\u2019t. But there\u2019s an intrigue. India is lining up for the 2036 Olympics. IOC president Thomas Bach made complimentary noises in an IOC forum in Delhi last week, which is what he does.<\/p>\n India has fabulous wealth beside its still-ingrained poverty and could fund the Olympics from petty cash. But so could the Saudis and their satellites. India would want to be careful about how a World Cup that turns its back on spectators goes down.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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