Empty Cricket World Cup stadium explained as Pakistan icon calls for overhaul

2023 Cricket World Cup preview

The Cricket World Cup is well and truly underway after yesterday’s opener, which saw the holders England defeated by nine wickets by New Zealand in a resounding defeat. In a replay of the 2019 final, the Kiwis were ruthless and got their revenge to begin this year’s tournament.

England are one of the favourites to make it all the way to the final but will be hoping for no more repeats of yesterday as they were comfortably beaten by New Zealand on Indian soil.

One contentious point that the cricket world made sure to point out was the lack of supporters in the ground, as there were plenty of empty seats for the opening match of the tournament – a curious setting and one that the organisers will be keen to avoid going forward.

Today’s action sees Pakistan take on the Netherlands, before tomorrow’s double-header of Bangladesh vs Afghanistan and South Africa vs Sri Lanka.

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India star to miss opener

India hotshot Shubman Gill is set to miss his side’s opening match of the World Cup against Australia.

He has been ruled out after testing positive for dengue, having missed the team’s practice on Wednesday and Thursday through illness.

“He is under the weather,” the official update from BCCI had said. “The medical team is closely monitoring him. We are hoping he gets better soon.”

Overhaul called for

Pakistan icon Wasim Akram has called for one-day cricket to be reduced to 40 overs in order to help speed up the game.

There have been suggestions that the current format is not engaging enough, while the backdrop of the conversation was provided by a nearly empty stadium yesterday.

Akram said to Fox Australia: “I have a problem with ODI cricket right now. Very rarely do you see nowadays in one-day cricket something interesting happen in those (middle) 30 overs.

“Just go to 40 overs … you’ll have more action during that period. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I think 40 overs would be more interesting, especially for bilateral series.

“Nowadays the audience, we do know their (attention) span is lesser than the nineties, because of T20 formats, because of social media. We have to adapt.”

Empty stadium explained

Viewers were perplexed as they turned on their TV to watch England in the opening game of the Cricket World Cup yesterday.

However, it appeared that just a few thousand fans were in attendance in the 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium.

The Guardian have claimed that the schedule being announced only six weeks ago will not have played a positive role in boosting numbers.

Foreign visitors were told on the day that they had to pick up their tickets from a hotel 20 minutes away from the ground, rather than the stadium itself.

While host nations are typically involved in the opening match, but it was a repeat of the 2019 final instead of featuring India – who would have provided a big boost in numbers.

Good morning

Hello and welcome to Express Sport’s live coverage of the Cricket World Cup, where you can find all the latest news and updates throughout the day.

Be sure to check out yesterday’s blog to recap England’s defeat to New Zealand and the news from the opening day of the tournament.

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