One of the biggest sports events in the world kicked off on October 5 with the opening match being played between England and New Zealand.
The inaugural match took place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the world’s largest cricket stadium.
Despite the high anticipation for the match, the stadium experienced an unexpectedly low turnout at the beginning of the match with platform X flooded with images showcasing the near-empty stands.
Netizens posted their dissatisfaction, noting that despite the stadium being only half-filled, online ticket booking platforms displayed "sold out" notifications for the tickets.
Here's what netizens posted:
Where’s the crowd !?🤔🤔
— Danielle Wyatt (@Danni_Wyatt) October 5, 2023
LOL this is just embarrassing at this point. Toss for the opening game of the WC happening in front of a completely empty stadium pic.twitter.com/qyCGV3uLpc
— yang goi (@GongR1ght) October 5, 2023
Empty Stadium in 1st game of World Cup😭 pic.twitter.com/cUPN38a6Ka
— SUPRVIRAT (@ishantraj51) October 5, 2023
Empty stadium for the world cup opener. Made me realise foreign Indian fans are the best they almost give tough competition to the home crowd of opposition pic.twitter.com/yZStJl3xn6
— 𝐒𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐬𝐌𝐒𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐧™ (@Itzshreyas07) October 5, 2023
Some on the internet speculated that office-goers would gradually make their way into the stadium in the evening.
Reports indicated that the stadium had around 40,000-45,000 spectators during the second innings of the match.
Former Indian star batter Virender Sehwag came up with an interesting proposal in response to the tweets about the vacant stadium in Ahmedabad posting on X. "Hopefully after office hours, there should be more people coming in. But for games not featuring Bharat, there should be free tickets for school and college children. With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup game and players get to play in front of a full stadium", he said on X.
Hopefully after office hours, there should be more people coming in. But for games not featuring Bharat, there should be free tickets for school and college children. With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup…
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 5, 2023
In the match, New Zealand steamrollered defending champions England by nine wickets, demonstrating again their knack of punching above their weight in showpiece events.
Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra smashed rapid unbeaten centuries to set up New Zealand's successful pursuit of a 283-run victory target, which came with 13.4 overs to spare.
Conway brought up his hundred in 83 balls. Ravindra, who collaborated in an epic unbroken 273-run partnership with Conway, took one delivery fewer to notch up his maiden ODI hundred in his memorable World Cup debut.
Electing to field on Thursday, New Zealand's bowlers restricted their opponents to 282-9, a modest total considering the firepower in England's usually formidable batting lineup.