Cricket World Cup rocked by 'embarrassing' scenes in farcical start to tournament

Questions are being asked about the scheduling at the Cricket World Cup after the tournament kicked off in front of a paltry crowd in Ahmedabad on Thursday. New Zealand thrashed England by nine wickets to kick off the ODI World Cup with a bang, but there weren't very many people there to see it.

When the first ball was bowled on Thursday afternoon, there were tens of thousands of empty seats around the 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium. Many pointed out that the stadium wouldn't even have been at 10 per cent capacity - an embarrassing look for the ICC and BCCI (Indian Cricket Board).

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Many highlighted the fact that fans were probably unwilling to sit in the 34C heat all day, with not much shade covering the crowd. The stadium did fill up as the match went on and the temperature dropped, but it still wasn't a good look considering the sea of empty orange seats that could be seen around the ground.

Questions have been asked as to why hosts India weren't scheduled to play the opening game of the tournament, as is commonplace at World Cups in an array of sports. Putting the hosts in the opening game always guarantees a big crowd turnout, and poorer crowds for ensuing games can then be overlooked.

But the fact England and New Zealand were scheduled to kick off the tournament was asking for trouble - and it backfired spectacularly. The schedule for the World Cup was only released 100 days before the tournament, and even then it was hit by late changes. Tickets were only made available to the general public 41 days before the first game, but the complicated process to secure them turned large numbers of fans away.

Aussie cricket writer Adam Collins wrote on social media on Thursday: "Sorting the schedule and selling the tickets five minutes before the comp has worked out well." Fans and commentators described the paltry crowd turnout as "embarrassing" and "pathetic".

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The crowd controversy overshadowed what was a sensational start to the tournament for the Kiwis. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra both smashed unbeaten centuries as New Zealand reached the 283-run victory target with 13.4 overs to spare.

It was a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final at Lord's in which England were declared winners via the boundary count-back rule (which has since been scrapped) after the game ended in a tie. This time around it was completely lop-sided.

Ravindra blasted 123 not out off 96 balls with 11 fours and five sixes, while Conway made 152 not out off 121. The 23-year-old Ravindra was named player-of-the-match on his World Cup debut.

Electing to field first after winning the toss, New Zealand's bowlers restricted defending champions England to 9-282 - a modest total considering their formidable batting line-up. Joe Root (77), Jos Buttler (43) and Jonny Bairstow (33) provided some resistance, but England failed to string together enough partnerships and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Matt Henry claimed 3-48 for New Zealand and their three spinners shared five wickets between them. "I'm disappointed," Buttler said. "We were very much outplayed by New Zealand and it's a tough defeat to take.

"I thought we were well below-par. We were aiming for somewhere around 330 and the pitch somewhat played better under lights.

"But we're not robots. Sometimes you don't play as well as you would like. Everyone's working hard, everyone's prepared well and we were just a bit off it. In international cricket when you're a little bit short and the opposition play very well, you're going to lose the game of cricket."

with agencies

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