Double wicket bash turns into damp squib

Tanmaya Kumar Nanda
India Abroad correspondent in Jersey City

If crowd attendance is any measure of an event's success, then it would be safe to dub the Zee Double Wicket Cricket Tournament as falling short.

The first two days of the three-day event has seen not more than 500 people in the stands at any given point of time. And given that the stands at the Lincoln Park were built to accommodate over 9,000 people, the emptiness is sometimes overwhelming.

While empty stands were understandable on Friday, the lack of people on the weekend was surprising. By way of silver lining, though, the fans who did turn up brought with them a sub-continental flavour, with their drums, flags, banners and an enthusiasm that is unique to South Asian cricket.

However, with the shortened format of the tournament - 16 overs per match, and only 2 players to bat and bowl in each team - the entire theme of the tournament could well be described as bonsai.

Although Hasan Jalil, director of Sports Worldwide which organized the tournament, said the "pitch was playing well", it was clear that most of the players were not bowling to their full potential. Abrupt bounce, and an uneven outfield contributed to slower play. Arif Usmani, also a director of the company, explained that the "pitch was all right, but yes, the bowlers could not take a full runup due to the uneven nature of the outfield."

Full marks, however, must go to the fielders, who were from the United States Cricket Association, and who did their job with a zest that could well come in handy for the national cricket team of India.

As for the low turnout, Usmani admitted that he was disappointed with the low crowds. "One of the problems was that there wasn't enough parking facility, and the other was that the location of the field was difficult to find for many people." He also added that after the tournament, Sports Worldwide would look into why ticket sales hadn't taken off at the many outlets. "But we have fulfilled our promise of bringing the players we said we would," he said.

The spectators definitely got their share of star-gazing with Wasim Akram, Shahid Afridi and Robin Singh easily being the most popular draws. Afridi and Akram, in fact, proved to be quite the crowd-pleasers with their big hitting, while old tigers Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga occasionally showed signs of the fire that won Sri Lanka the 1996 Wills World Cup in Lahore.

The two-wicket tournament, however, did not work out to be as exciting as projected, largely due to the batsmen sometimes resorting to cautious batting. And in an aside during one of the matches, a spectator was heard combining the recent match-fixing controversy with the slow pace of the game: "Pehle to paise kha ke theek se nahin khelte the, ab khana kha ke theek se nahin khel rahe hain (First, they wouldn't play well after taking money, now they aren't playing well after taking lunch").

Usmani, however, is determined to repeat the tournament as soon as possible again. One only hopes the low turnout won't be repeated.