The England team has come and gone. And one of the most surprising factors about India this time has been the few fans that came out to greet their international superstars. So, why was the India England series such a colossal disaster in terms of spectator turn out despite the results in favour of India?
Perhaps the Indian cricket team will share of the blame for why the recently concluded India England ODI series saw such abject number of fans at the cricket stadium. One of the primary reasons has been the fact that the results in England where the Indian cricket team plunged to new depths of despair were nothing to write home about. Having being repeatedly plummelled by the hosts, it seemed only natural that the results would have left a few Indian cricket fans feeling desolate and put off therefore, with the Indian cricket team playing the same opposition once more.
While the scheduling also may have something to do with the fact that the same teams seem to be engaging one another in repeated succession, there is also the important factor that the series in England and the following series in India saw several of the mainstream Indian cricketers injured and therefore, missing in action. As a result, without their superheroes, the hyped contest turned into a virtual no show, with fans showing little patience for fresh faces or results that failed to yield the desired result. By the time India registered a 5-0 series whitewash versus England at home, the disillusioned fans had already cast their eyes in other directions.
With the series also catching India in the midst of the festival season, it was time to leave the gloom of the recent results behind and focus on brighter agenda and perhaps the cricket fans decided to do just that, giving Diwali precedence over supporting the Indian cricket. Another reason cricket suffered from lack of interest, ironically in India, was the unprecedented first Indian F1 Grand Prix in India which received tremendous coverage, hype and interest and eventually as things turned out, turned out to be a roaring success that even some of the Indian cricketers could not stay away from.
But perhaps another factor that must be taken into account is the fact that cricket fatigue has most definitely set in not only with cricketers and their tired bodies but also, with the cricket fans who seem to be unable to catch a break between series with tours planned within days of each other by vested boards to leave no time to register a memorable series or let a patten set in. The teams themselves are often guilty of going through the motion, unable to lift themselves for contests. Would it not then be too much to expect anything else from the fans?
