Fans can’t wait for action to start in India-SL T20 series
CUTTACK: A day before India and Sri Lanka put bat to ball again, Virat Kohli was asked how much was too much.
The India captain’s answer took in the difference in the points of view of those playing for India and those who watch them but he had ended on a note of caution.
“This analysis (of how interesting it is playing the same team this soon) has to be done because you don’t want the fans going away from the game,” Kohli had said in Kolkata last month before the current tour began.
Kohli is settling into a new partnership far away from Cuttack, but had he got here on Monday with the India and Sri Lanka teams on a chartered flight, he would have realised the fans are going nowhere.
NOTHING TOO MUCH
Because when it comes to the shorter versions of cricket, nothing seems too much in India.
This may be the 10th T20I in India this year, but come Wednesday the Barabati Stadium will be a sold-out cauldron of partisan support.
Such was the demand for tickets – priced between Rs 200 and Rs 8000 – that after they ran out on Sunday, the police had to be called in.
“The seating capacity is around 42,000 of which around 32,000 tickets were sold to the public. Over 9,000 were sold online last month and nearly 11,000 were then bought by OCA affiliates. The rest were sold at the weekend,” said Asirbad Behera, who was OCA general secretary until the Lodha Committee recommendations kicked in.
CROWD TROUBLE
During the only other T20I here, on October 5, 2015, things had got too partisan. The crowd had forced two stoppages when India, dismissed for 92, lost to South Africa by six wickets. On Wednesday, the stadium is expected to be under CCTV surveillance. ODIs bypassed Cuttack in 2016 -- there has been no Test here since 1995 -- and last month, Cuttack missed out on a T20 against New Zealand because of a local festival.
So, though this would be the second international here in 2017 after the ODI against England in January where Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni got big hundreds during a run feast, there is no question of fan fatigue. Yet.