India has progressed into the business end of the tournament but MS Dhoni and his Team India’s support base in the stands is interestingly all set to come down and the reasons for this are many.
First, the burst of Indian fans/tourists who had descended for the India-Pakistan and India-South Africa matches from India, Europe and America at the start of the tournament have pretty much gone back and would not be returning. Their numbers were around 15,000. Reduce that from the 86,500 who had attended the India-South Africa match at Melbourne and you would have not more than 76,000 left.
“Not all of those 76,000 would be coming to the India-Bangladesh match. You can expect not more than 55,000 Indians at the MCG this time,” Swami Army co-ordinator Rajul said. Besides, the match is scheduled on a week-day (Thursday) which is a working day and Indian Australians travelling from other cities would not be able to make it.
The other reason for the thinner attendance is purely financial. Under the changed format, ICC announced the knockout fixtures only yesterday which gives no time to fans to plan in advance and to their budget.
last-minute air fares in Australia go over the top. “A ticket which usually goes for not more than 70-75 dollars from Sydney to Melbourne or from Adelaide from Melbourne has shot up to over $200 one way and most people would not want to spend so much on one match,” Javed Khan, owner of the much celebrated fine dining Indian restaurant in Sydney DeliODeli, said on phone from Sydney. He recalled how he had to dish out $ 498 one-way air ticket to get to the India-Pakistan match at Adelaide from Sydney because of his last-minute travel plans.
India played its last big match in the World Cup against South Africa on February 23. There is a 24-day gap between that match and the Q/F India will be playing. “Travellers from India and elsewhere who were on a budget cricket/travel packages sold by companies like yatra.com could not have stayed back for around a month. They had got a good deal in the around Rs 2 lakh package deals they got to watch the Pakistan and South Africa matches and also travel around for 10-11 days. Australia is one of the most expensive cities and a 24-day gap was never viable for the travelling cricket fans,” Rajul said.
Besides, the ticket prices for the knockout stages are considerably higher as compared to the Group stage matches where the cheapest ticket was for only $20. For the semi-finals, the lowest price range (Category C) is $250.
Rajul, however, sees a silver lining in such pricing. “Australians seldom spend this much money to go to a match. But the Indian cricket fan doesn’t really care. To see the semifinal, a non-Sydney cricket fan would be spending close to $1,000 on air fare and accommodation which is an amount an Australian will not pay unless he is overly passionate about the cricket. So, assuming that India plays Australia in the Sydney semifinal, I will put the ratio of Indian: Aussies at 40:60 but would not be surprised if it turns out to be the other way round,” he said.
However, he is not expecting too much of a crowd walking with him on that fan march the Swami Army would be undertaking from Federation Square to the MCG on Thursday morning, nothing like the trail he gathered on February 23.