When will spectator apathy end?

Cricket fans witness Day Two action in the India vs Australia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on February 17. Representation pic/Getty Images

There are far too many recent cases of spectator inconvenience in India during international matches and Indian Premier League games that cannot be ignored.

For years, the cricket-crazy spectator has been taken for granted on these shores, and all he or she has got as a reward for their undying love for the game are splendid on-field performances.

Several responses to spectator apathy are of the ‘What's new? Nothing will change' kind. Why shouldn't things change? We live in an age where the business of luxury living is booming. Everyone in the cricketing ecosystem is upping their game, so why can't administrators of BCCI's state units do the same?

It's easy to ask fans why they bother going to watch games when they can sit in the comfort of their homes and follow the action on television. But clearly, fans want to experience cricketing spectacles in the flesh and there is merit and fulfilment in their ‘being there' needs.

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Dr Richard Cashman, the Australian, who published his fine book on Indian cricket called Patrons, Players and the Crowd in 1979, brought out the significance of spectators in the book. He quoted Richie Benaud, who was part of the 1956-57 and 1959-60 Australian teams to India, as saying, "They throng to the grounds in their thousands and, over a full Test match, in their hundreds of thousands, cheerfully sitting in cramped space having bought legitimate and at times non-existent tickets after months of saving for the great day."

Tony Greig, who led the MCC team to India in 1976-77 and was also part of Tony Lewis's team here in 1972-73, said, "Nowhere else in the world is a cricketer made to feel so important."

Just the other day, we read about fans wanting to buy tickets at Chinnaswamy Stadium for the southern IPL derby involving Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, facing great upheavals to buy offline tickets at Bangalore counters.

I recently got talking to Peter Havey, a UK-based cricket fan, who was at the India vs Australia ODI on March 22 in Chennai. His was a highly forgettable experience. Firstly, the security personnel couldn't guide him properly to his stand. After running in circles, he discovered he had to walk up, what looked like five floors to his seat. Havey felt terribly exhausted and went down to look for some cold water that he could splash on his face.

Luckily for him, there was a lift, but he collapsed on a seat when he reached ground level and a Good Samaritan took him to the Kauvery Hospital where he was diagnosed with heat exhaustion.

By the way, it was so good to see a leading light like Sunil Gavaskar bring up hygiene issues in his column that appeared in this paper on Monday. "The toilets are the worst in most stadia with a shortage of toilet and tissue paper that makes you wonder where the crores were spent. That said, the need for more toilets at all stadiums cannot be overemphasised.

When you have thousands coming to watch the game, even if it's the shortest format of the game, there will be a need to use the toilet but where to find one and a clean one at that is the main concern," wrote Gavaskar.

It is more than critical that the Board assimilates the points Gavaskar has raised about toilets and facilities for differently-abled spectators and get all their state units to act on them.

Providing basic needs shouldn't necessarily need motivation or recognition, but it won't hurt the Board to introduce an award for the best spectator-friendly venue among the many rewards given out on their awards night.

Not only spectators, but the media too need to experience good hygiene. There is no shortage of horror stories from press people visiting grounds to do their job.

Not all venues have been or are horrendous in this aspect. I remember the wife of Inderjit Singh Bindra supervising housekeeping at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali.

The ever-increasing subsidies state associations receive must be spent on the development of the game, but a sizeable amount should also be allocated within the association to enhance their respective stadiums. The so-called pride administrators take to be associated with a ground shouldn't be only about seating capacity and atmosphere. It's the seating arrangements, easy entry and exit points, food, drink and restrooms. How about feedback forms to be filled by the paying public?

England, Australia and South Africa are top-class when it comes to organising games. Emergencies are handled with aplomb. In Centurion, before the start of the India vs South Africa ODI in the 2006-07 season, journalists entering the press box were handed a sheet containing telephone numbers for various emergencies. The sheet also included the phone number of the carpenter on duty for the game.

At the end of the day, the average spectator must feel that he or she has been made to feel special. Simply put, that spectator is a customer for the cricket authorities and, as they say, the customer is always right!

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.