Cavernous Ahmedabad stadium magnifies lack of interest in India-West Indies Test

Before we start hammering nails into Test cricket’s coffin, let’s be clear about one thing – the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad isn’t easy to fill. With a maximum capacity of 132,000, it was nowhere near full even for the 2023 World Cup final between India and Australia, when a crowd of 92,453 came through the turnstiles. That was well short of the 104,859 that had watched the first post-Covid Indian Premier League (IPL) final in 2022, which the hometown Gujarat Titans won.

Two days into the India-West Indies Test, the one thing more noticeable than the lopsided nature of the contest has been the lack of interest from the paying public. Scheduling it during the Puja holidays perhaps didn’t help, but there has been next to no enthusiasm or buzz about a match against West Indies, who have gone from near-Invincibles to easy-beats in the space of three decades.

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The Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA), perhaps anticipating little demand for tickets, opened only the lower tiers of the cavernous stands. Even then, the backdrop to most of the shots that KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja played on their way to hundreds were empty plastic seats, rows and rows of them in different colours. Anil Patel, the GCA secretary, told journalists that the association knew that the response would be pretty lukewarm. Still, they took on the task of hosting the game because a Test match still has some cachet.