As always there is a major hullabaloo over the number of tickets to be given to the fans. Millions of cricket fans stand in the hot sun for hours and get lathi charged - their crime? They want to pay and watch a cricket match. For a game that has made money because of this very fan, the fan who provides the advertisers enough incentive to invest crores and crores into this game by his sheer interest and passion, the game's administrators treat the fan very very badly indeed.
Surprisingly all the problems happen in Indian stadia only. I have not yet heard of problems in ticketing in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Maybe they treat their fans better. It is a symptom I have seen over many years. The last ones who get any respect are the ones who need to get it the most - the fans, who make all this possible by drawing advertisers with their sheer numbers and the passion, and the cricketers themselves, past and present. Take away the Indian cricket team and all other cricketers, current and past, are ignored by the Associations normally, not given any special privileges or even good seating (which is all reserved for the non-playing administrators who enjoy the air conditioned, film star surrounded comfort while watching a game they have done nothing for). See the list of dignitaries next match - Rajeev Shukla to Niranjan Shah, Ratnakar Shetty to whoever. You will see no cricketer worth his salt for a mile in the stadium - most likely the administrators would have even forgotten their existence.
But its a sign of the times, the turn of the cycle and I am sure it is only a matter of time before it is all back to where it began. The fan will be rightly given his due recognition and so will the cricketers. I only hope it is soon.
Surprisingly all the problems happen in Indian stadia only. I have not yet heard of problems in ticketing in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Maybe they treat their fans better. It is a symptom I have seen over many years. The last ones who get any respect are the ones who need to get it the most - the fans, who make all this possible by drawing advertisers with their sheer numbers and the passion, and the cricketers themselves, past and present. Take away the Indian cricket team and all other cricketers, current and past, are ignored by the Associations normally, not given any special privileges or even good seating (which is all reserved for the non-playing administrators who enjoy the air conditioned, film star surrounded comfort while watching a game they have done nothing for). See the list of dignitaries next match - Rajeev Shukla to Niranjan Shah, Ratnakar Shetty to whoever. You will see no cricketer worth his salt for a mile in the stadium - most likely the administrators would have even forgotten their existence.
But its a sign of the times, the turn of the cycle and I am sure it is only a matter of time before it is all back to where it began. The fan will be rightly given his due recognition and so will the cricketers. I only hope it is soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment