16 October,2023 08:27 AM IST | Mumbai | Sunil Gavaskar
Spectators witness the World Cup opening tie between England and NZ at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 5. Pic/AFP
A little over a week into the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, it's strange to find many times champions Australia without a point against their name. They have lost both their games so far, the first to India and then their biggest defeat in the World Cup when South Africa beat them. Their planning can't be faulted as they went to South Africa for a five-match ODI series and then travelled to India to play a three-game series. They lost both the series, which wouldn't have helped their confidence, but at least they had got some quality game time under their belts.
In their opening game, the Indian spinners wove a web around the flat-footed batters and when their bowlers gave them a rousing start, capturing three Indian wickets, the modern trend of trying to slide and dive and fall down and make a simple catch look spectacular, cost them the opportunity to get Virat Kohli's wicket and put the scare on the Indians. Kohli didn't look back and shepherded a rejuvenated KL Rahul to take India to a win.
They will now have to win six of their remaining seven matches to qualify and while there is never a question of writing the Aussies off, it definitely is not going to be easy.
The four teams who have won their first two games are India, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand. These teams not only have batters in good form but also have the variety in the bowling to restrict the opposition scoring. That is most crucial on good batting pitches that will be there in October and November.
The defending champions England have bounced back well after the resounding defeat to New Zealand and while one man never makes a team, the return of Ben Stokes could lift them considerably.
The team that could end up conceding the most runs in the tournament could well be Sri Lanka, who have conceded 770-plus runs in the two matches they have played so far.
If there's a world event in a developing country, can controversies, real or media created, be far behind? So the first day itself saw one being created about the absence of crowds at the opening game between the finalists of the previous World Cup of 2019. The Narendra Modi Stadium can accommodate over 100,000 people easily. That said, it is up to the people to choose which match they want to attend and clearly, the England v New Zealand match was not interesting enough for the industrious people of Gujarat to skip work and go to the stadium. That was enough for the perennial fault-finders and moaners to ask questions why that was so. What a silly question! Were all the matches in the 2019 and 2015 edition played to full stadiums. Even the final between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground involving the home team was not filled to capacity. Nobody questioned that, so why question a game where the home team were not playing? Even if there are empty seats when India are playing there is no reason to read anything into it. Lots of people may choose to do something else or something may crop up at the last moment, preventing them from using their tickets.
So no need to get uptight about empty stands. Just focus on cricket and write about that, rather than looking to create unnecessary news and controversies. Enjoy the game.
Professional Management Group
