Since the central government’s move banning 500 and 1000 rupee bills, the India-England Test match scheduled in Rajkot witnessed a dip in the turn-out as the window-sale of tickets received little draw from fans
Rajkot: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government’s decision to abolish high denomination Indian currency notes dealt a blow to the masses alike, including the city of Rajkot, which is making a stale and unsatisfactory debut as a Test match centre owing to the timing of the ban.
The central government’s surprise decision to refrain from allowing the circulation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in a fresh new bold move to attempt in exhausting black money hidden from the country’s Income Tax Department, has brought cash transactions to a grinding halt, causing hysteria amongst the laymen, keen to hold on to their cash.
Earlier on India’s home series against New Zealand drew crowds at Kanpur, Kolkata and Indore. However there lies the worrying state of Test cricket’s fading popularity against the commercial giants like the Twenty20 leagues.
The Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) stadium has seen stands go untaken on the days of the first match at Rajkot during a five-test series between India and England, where local organisers blame a cash crunch to be the prime culprit, as the organisers have refrained from accepting discontinued denominations.
“The demonetisation has had a big impact on the attendance,” secretary of the SCA Niranjan Shah said. “The window sale of tickets has been hampered as people have been trying to hold on to their 100 rupee notes. “The announcement came on the eve of the start of the match and there was nothing we could do to avoid it.”
Strategies of single entry passes for five days during the matches selling at a measly rate of 500 rupees ($7.40), hasn’t helped with stadiums boasting capacity of about 28,500, hardly seeing 8,000 spectators on a daily basis, the stadium, with the crowds predominantly comprising of school children.
While the Rajkot stadium hosted its first international match in 2013 when India was pitted against England in a one-dayer, SCA’s Shah said he was hoping for a decent turn out of 20,000 people on a daily basis, more so because of the two home boys Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja being featured playing for the hosts.
“People are more concerned queuing up at banks to exchange the banned notes. How can they come to watch cricket?,” Shah said. “This is probably a lesson for people here to use the option of online booking more in the future.”
The 72 year-old secretary added that “I would not say the distance of the stadium from the city is a reason for the poor attendance,” “The stadium gets full for the Twenty20 matches which are played in the evening.’’ While the stadium is located at a distance of 12 kilometres from the main city, but Shah refrains from blaming the lengthy commute as reason for the dip in the turnout.
“I am hoping the attendance will pick up for the weekends. We have started tickets for the weekend for just 100 rupees so hopefully we will have better crowd.”