Crowds

[GIMH]

Best part of the WC was how quiet the home fans were when Strauss was batting.

[flibbertyjibber]

Best part of the WC was how quiet the home fans were when Strauss was batting.

Funnest bit was he got louder applause for reaching 4000 career ODI runs than for his hundred. A very strange crowd to do that.

[Turbinator]

Funnest bit was he got louder applause for reaching 4000 career ODI runs than for his hundred. A very strange crowd to do that.

Indians are obsessed with milestones

[vcs]

Anand Patel who's at the stadium writes in: Amazing to hear the Indian crowd cheer 'Bresnan Bresnan', for a guy who hit the decisive six against India a couple of days ago

Interesting, in the light of some of the posts that have been made in this thread. Though I'm sure someone will say it's because Indian fans only care for batting and just want to see big sixes all the time, or something.

[Spark]

Am I the only one who finds not clapping opposition 50s incredibly poor form? Really grates IMO.

[Goughy]

Heck, India is one of the top tourist destinations in the world for a reason.

41st apparently

International tourist arrivals by country of destination 2007
Out of a global total of 901 million tourists in 2007, the following countries were the 60 most visited:

Rank Country International tourist arrivals 
1  France 80.9 million 
2  Spain 58.7 million 
3  United States 56.0 million 
4  China 54.7 million 
5  Italy 43.7 million 
6  United Kingdom 30.9 million 
7  Germany 24.4 million 
8  Ukraine 23.1 million 
9  Turkey 22.2 million 
10  Mexico 21.4 million 
11  Malaysia 21.0 million 
12  Austria 20.8 million 
13  Russia 20.6 million 
14  Canada 17.9 million 
15  Hong Kong 17.2 million 
16  Greece 16.2 million 
17  Poland 15.0 million 
18  Thailand 14.5 million 
19  Macau 12.9 million 
20  Portugal 12.3 million 
21  Saudi Arabia 11.5 million 
22  Netherlands 11.0 million 
23  Egypt 10.6 million 
24  Croatia 9.3 million 
25  South Africa 9.1 million 
26  Hungary 8.6 million 
27  Switzerland 8.4 million 
28  Japan 8.35 million 
29  Ireland 8.33 million 
30  Singapore 8.0 million 
31  Morocco 7.4 million 
32  United Arab Emirates 7.1 million (2005) 
33  Belgium 7.0 million 
34  Tunisia 6.8 million 
35  Czech Republic 6.7 million 
36  South Korea 6.4 million 
37  Australia 5.6 million 
38  Indonesia 5.5 million 
39  Sweden 5.2 million 
40  Bulgaria 5.15 million 
41  India 5.08 million 
42  Brazil 5.03 million 
43  Bahrain 4.9 million 
44  Denmark 4.8 million 
45  Argentina 4.6 million 
46  Norway 4.4 million 
47  Vietnam 4.23 million 
48  Syria 4.16 million 
49  Dominican Republic 3.98 million 
50  Taiwan 3.72 million 
51  Puerto Rico 3.69 million 
52  Finland 3.5 million 
53  Jordan 3.4 million 
54  Philippines 3.1 million 
55  Cyprus 2.7 million 
56  Chile 2.5 million 
57  New Zealand 2.47 million 
58  Andorra 2.2 million 
59  Cuba 2.12 million 
60  Israel 2.07 million

[NasserFan207]

Am I the only one who finds not clapping opposition 50s incredibly poor form? Really grates IMO.

Gotta be honest, I think for most non-subcontinental fans its the total silence whenever an opposition player acheives something which freaks us out. Its just a different culture though.

I do wonder whether the apparant silence is exaggerated simply because of the constant level of noise beforehand. Obviously there are plenty of Indian fans who will clap the opposition, its just very hard to notice.

I find it particularly strange, since though I support England in tests (and have been to quite a few), I'm not emotionally invested in them, and for the most part enjoy the games from an almost neutral perspective. I watch mostly for individual performances.

[Jono]

Fantastic crowd at Kenya vs. Australia considering the match-up.

[smalishah84]

Gotta be honest, I think for most non-subcontinental fans its the total silence whenever an opposition player acheives something which freaks us out. Its just a different culture though.

I do wonder whether the apparant silence is exaggerated simply because of the constant level of noise beforehand. Obviously there are plenty of Indian fans who will clap the opposition, its just very hard to notice.

I find it particularly strange, since though I support England in tests (and have been to quite a few), I'm not emotionally invested in them, and for the most part enjoy the games from an almost neutral perspective. I watch mostly for individual performances.

definitely a different culture. I find it poor form too when the crowds in the SC do not applaud the opposition but thats the way it is here in the SC. It is like a war for most of the crowds.

[Blaze 18]

Fantastic crowd at Kenya vs. Australia considering the match-up.

Yeah that was great to see. Even the crowd in Mumbai for the New Zealand-Canada game wasn't as bad as it could have been.

[Arjun]

Indian crowds have often cheered minnows against big teams, like the Bangalore crowd cheered Ireland and then (a little less) Kenya.

[silentstriker]

I don't think it's unfair to suggest that the vast majority of the Indian cricketing public only care to watch their own players.

Indian fans only come to watch Indian players

Always get the feeling that Indians don't like following sport, they just like following India.

The lowest ticket price is more than the average Indian makes in several months (average yearly paycheck is about $700 ?), the cheapest ticket for India-England game was about $250).

Obviously there are more people and the minnow games might be cheaper, but compared to the average pay and cost of living, I think that characterization is inaccurate. Obviously with the ticket prices as compared to % of their income, people would save their money for a home game.

A similar price at an England match would be like 10000 pounds for the cheapest seats.

Now again, there is a difference since the population is bigger and there is a growing middle class, but 12000 rupees is still a lot of money for the vast majority of people - even the newly professional class. Especially when you have to double or quadruple it if you're coming with family.

[TT Boy]

Any links verifying the ticket prices for the India England game? $250 for the cheapest ticket is unbelievable. I know India's middle class is in the hundreds of millions and are known for having little or no taste (like China's new rich) but that's obscene.

[silentstriker]

Any links verifying the ticket prices for the India England game? $250 for the cheapest ticket is unbelievable. I know India's middle class is in the hundreds of millions and are known for having little or no taste (like China's new rich) but that's obscene.

No silly point: this time, you?re last in the queue - Times Of India

Mentions it here. I read that for India-England game, the cheapest was around 12000 rupees and the more expensive about 18000 rupees. I could be wrong, but even if the cheapest was $50 (2000 rupees), that's still almost the average monthly salary for ONE ticket. Again, that may not be 'super-expensive' for the new professional class, but it's not chump change.

With that said, I do know the minnow games do have cheaper seats, but you do have to take into account the "average" person (and also being a weekday - the concept of a 'vacation day' now exists in the professional world but not the average rickshaw driver).

[silentstriker]

On the other hand, I also found this 'New' Wankhede fails to draw crowds for World Cup matches | News | NDTVSports.com.

So I may need to take back my comment since 250 rupees is much more affordable to the general public. I have my own reasons for never going to a BCCI venue but if there are a lot of tickets available for 250 rupees at other stadiums as well, I would have hoped for a higher turnout.