Published: Dec 09, 2016, 03:51 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 09, 2016, 03:51 PM (IST)
December 7, 2016. A day before what was potentially an intense fourth Test between India and England for fourth Test at the Wankhede Stadium, my day started from the same place around 9:30 am. Before I start sharing my experience, let me remind that England are the same team that beat India twice in their previous encounters at Wankhede Stadium in 2005-06 and 2012-13. The first person whom I met outside Wankhede was Ram Babu, with the tricolour flag in his hand. In case you are not familiar with the name, Ram Babu is among the most avid fans of Indian cricket team. He is to MS Dhoni What Sudhir Gautam is to Sachin Tendulkar.
As Ram Babu entered the stadium and I moved towards the ticket counter, I was surprised to see a substantial crowd queued up. There were not only Indian fans, but there were also a significant number of English fans standing in the long queue for tickets. I joined the queue, not to get a ticket, but to interact with these men. I asked whether they expected England to bounce back in this Test. One of them instantly replied, “Yes, we are expecting that but captain [Alastair] Cook is not in form; if he gets in touch, however, a victory is possible.”
As more people gathered behind me, I decided to leave the ground and head for Bandra-Kurla Complex, where a Ranji Trophy match was being played between Goa and Himachal Pradesh. I reached there around 11.30, and was shocked to find four Englishmen who had come to watch the match. They sat outside the media tent — and were the only spectators at the venue.
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They later moved to some other part of the ground to get a better view and avoid the sunshine. I approached one of them after finishing my lunch. Three out of the four were probably above fifty, while the fourth seemed younger. One of the three elderly men was maintaining a ball-by-ball score of the match, which again left me astonished.
I decided to approach the man who looked closest my age and picked up a conversation. Immediately after the pleasantries, I asked Mike (that is his name) what it felt like to watch a Ranji Trophy match.
“Disappointing,” came the answer. “It’s very disappointing to see no crowd in a Ranji Trophy match and no such arrangements are even here.”
I tried to make Mike understand that it had a lot to do with BCCI’s decision of getting every match played at neutral venues, which meant no team would get home advantage; moreover, barely anyone cares about domestic cricket in India others than the board, the players and the officials.
“This must be new to you but in England, you will find such people in big numbers at every local match. You will hardly see any matches there without any crowd, irrespective of what match is going on,” he added.
In between, Goa captain Sagun Kamat hit a boundary. Both of us applauded, as did his friends. Then I realised that the five of us were the only ones outside the dressing-room who actually applauded the batsman’s effort. Mike continued: “A Ranji Trophy match is equivalent to a County Championship match. You will see plenty of old people coming to watch every match. The youngsters show up as well, both to enjoy the game and learn from the professionals.”
Mike also shared one of his interesting experiences with a Mumbai taxi driver: “While coming here, I asked the distance of Wankhede from BKC. The driver asked me whether I came here to watch cricket. I told him we had arrived for the Test. That driver seemed surprised: ‘why will anyone go to watch a Test match?’ I had no clue what he was talking about.”
I explained the situation and the mentality of the average Indian fan towards Test cricket. He countered me immediately: “That is why you need crowd in Ranji Trophy matches. If people do not know anything about domestic cricket, how will they find interest in Test cricket? BCCI need to get the stars back to domestic cricket.”
The disappointment was clear on his face amidst applauses for every boundary and wicket continued.
I asked him on England’s chances of winning the Mumbai Test. Mike was blunt: “Very difficult. Yes, we have beaten India in Mumbai previously but it will be very difficult this time. We do not have players like Kevin Pietersen, spinners like Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann. Also, why on earth did they pick Gareth Batty? That was a ridiculous decision.”
I tried to cheer him up. I reminded him of Cook’s heroics in their previous tour of India. This time they have two others in Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. He did not seem convinced: “It is still very difficult. India have a very good bowling attack and have got an amazing captain in Virat Kohli. I am just being realistic. Yes, I will cheer for England, but I cannot ignore reality,” he said.
Mumbai is one of best cricketing city in the world and is the most successful team in India’s most elite domestic tournament. Mumbai have won 41 Ranji Trophy titles so far. Despite such rich cricketing history of Mumbai, barely any spectator turns up to watch a First-Class match. Beside all this, former England captain Michael Atherton recently claimed Mumbai is the real home of cricket not Lord’s and explained it in his column by writing, “It’s a commercial powerhouse, a successful brand and, of course, it has the history but Lord’s is not the home of cricket.”
Further, I moved towards the other three men, but the response was the same. One of them, Andrew, told me: “It is very disappointing to see no crowd. It is a Ranji Trophy match. Why is no one cheering for the cricketers?” Talking about England’s chances, they shared the same consensus: “Cooky is not in form. He needs to score big. If he loses this one it is going to be some tough days for Cook.”
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Andrew asked me whether foreign cricketers are eligible to play Ranji Trophy. I remembered Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali, both of whom had played for Rajasthan, while Nayan Doshi had played for Saurashtra and Enamul Haque Jr for Maharashtra (not to speak of the West Indian fast bowlers of the mid-1960s). I told them that all BCCI allows a state these days are three ‘professionals’ born outside the state, but overseas professionals are not as common in Indian domestic cricket as in IPL.
As the shadows lengthened, we kept conversing on numerous topics. What intrigued me was their seriousness towards every level of the game. Over my years of journalism I have never come across a stray cricket fan in India who feels about domestic cricket in another country.
It must have been a cultural difference.
(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with CricLife and CricketCountry.com. He can be followed at @abhik2593)
