Look who’s watching! Nobody

It does not worry PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan that the first Test at Gaddafi Stadium is not drawing expected crowds. Now that India and Paki...

It does not worry PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan that the first Test at Gaddafi Stadium is not drawing expected crowds. Now that India and Pakistan have decided to play more cricket than usual —-including matches at neutral venues —- it’s obvious that both PCB and BCCI are more interested in the lucrative television rights than anything else.

The crowd for the first Test here has been sparse, pretty similar to what it had been during India’s tour in 2004. The reason given then was that since the Test matches were played after an exciting ODI series, there were no takers for the longer version of the game. So what happened this time?

“There’s no excitement left in watching these Tests,” says Mukhtar Ahmed. It is becoming difficult even for the locals to explain why an India-Pakistan Test can’t draw spectators. “Against England and even against Bangladesh, there was a better turnout,” reckons a local journalist. Khan, however, feels that the crowd here for the ongoing match is “good”.

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The PCB chief is not ready to buy the theory that the boards are no longer interested in giving ‘undue’ importance to Test matches and instead concentrating in marketing the ODIs for furthering revenue. Khan, although, accepts that ODI matches are “more exciting”.

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has an interesting point to make on paucity of crowd. “A five-day game takes time to make a contest out of it and the interests keep varying for different people at different times. It is not just about two teams facing each other, it is also about how a game gradually builds-up. Pakistan may have scored 679 runs, but a result was never guaranteed. The same, I guess, was the case at Multan last time.”

Agrees Iqbal, responsible for manning men at the counters. “There were fans approaching for tickets on the morning when Younis Khan and Mohd Yousuf were heading for a double century. The wintry conditions are not the perfect comfort-zones for those watching cricket from the stands.”