You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed it! It seems like the MCC got quite a few things right Monday before last. The only criticism seemed to be that because they were only selling one ticket per person they should've either started selling them earlier than 0830 or employed more hands on deck. As it were, I believe the Chief Executive himself had to man one of the ticket terminals just to keep up demand at one point!
But I completely agree with you about truly boozed up crowds. I think there's a fine line between the odd funny comment and the Barmy Army acting er... barmy. I wonder just how drunk the fans would've been had India batted on till the close of play and the match been left on a cliffhanger of a wicket or two to take for England. Like the last Test at Lord's between these two in 2007. The rain played spoilsport (for your lot, at least) in that match but with roasting conditions (especially around tea) this time around, it was obvious people were making more trips to the toilet and pub (in that order) than earlier in the day when it was slightly cooler!
And yes you're right, there have been Mexican waves at Lord's before but I wonder how many of them took place on the fifth day of a Test match and involved a full-house crowd... except the two members stands! At one point we did see some movement above the sight screen during one set of waves but turns out they were just adjusting their ties...
>I did worry a bit during the SL series Indeed, scheduling is a major issue at Cardiff and although this series has drawn big crowds, besides the Ashes, I don't think there's been any other series in recent memory that's attracted regular full houses. Like you said, it's great that Test cricket still thrives in this country but a lot more could be done to preserve its sanctity and project its popularity. The real problem with places like Lord's and the Oval is that they cannot expand without moving to a new location and that would simply defeat the attractive selling-point that at least the former has purely based on its history. But that also means ticket prices for the first few days of play are out of bounds for many potential spectators.
The one thing that really stuck out for me was how many first-time spectators had made their way to Lord's last week. It was obvious from the responses online and even on TMS, when Aggers was talking to a few members of the crowd as I picured him above, he asked how many were attending for the first time, and a whole bunch of hands went up and cheered. And those were just the ones listening to him on the wireless!
I think it's obvious that there is also a lot of interest in Test cricket amongst Indian cricket fans but the problem is that it is not marketed and scheduled as well back home as it is over here. I mean I know you've pointed out the shortcomings of scheduling a Test at Cardiff in May but in India it's even worse. In my dad's time and I think right up to the mid-80s, Chennai always hosted a Test in December/January known as the Pongal Test (you might remember the posts I've made about our harvest festival in January). Now they're lucky to get a Test once every few years and even then it's dished out in such a haphazard manner fans either don't have enough time to plan around it or can't afford it (for whatever reason).
The odd thing is that ask any Indian cricket fan what the score is during a Test match and they will tell you more than you cared to know, but ask him/her if they've been to an actual game and they'll probably say no. During my first few years here I felt it was kinda the same way with English cricket fans. Most of them seemed to be lying dormant, not making a big fuss about the fact that they followed the game but always keen to know what the score was (unlike their football or rugby cousins). But I digress.
I hope people with a love for the longer format will make their way into the upper echelons of the BCCI and ICC because I think it's obvious that there's a way to balance all three formats of the game and keep it commercially viable. But I'm not going to count my chickens just yet.
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But I completely agree with you about truly boozed up crowds. I think there's a fine line between the odd funny comment and the Barmy Army acting er... barmy. I wonder just how drunk the fans would've been had India batted on till the close of play and the match been left on a cliffhanger of a wicket or two to take for England. Like the last Test at Lord's between these two in 2007. The rain played spoilsport (for your lot, at least) in that match but with roasting conditions (especially around tea) this time around, it was obvious people were making more trips to the toilet and pub (in that order) than earlier in the day when it was slightly cooler!
And yes you're right, there have been Mexican waves at Lord's before but I wonder how many of them took place on the fifth day of a Test match and involved a full-house crowd... except the two members stands! At one point we did see some movement above the sight screen during one set of waves but turns out they were just adjusting their ties...
>I did worry a bit during the SL series
Indeed, scheduling is a major issue at Cardiff and although this series has drawn big crowds, besides the Ashes, I don't think there's been any other series in recent memory that's attracted regular full houses. Like you said, it's great that Test cricket still thrives in this country but a lot more could be done to preserve its sanctity and project its popularity. The real problem with places like Lord's and the Oval is that they cannot expand without moving to a new location and that would simply defeat the attractive selling-point that at least the former has purely based on its history. But that also means ticket prices for the first few days of play are out of bounds for many potential spectators.
The one thing that really stuck out for me was how many first-time spectators had made their way to Lord's last week. It was obvious from the responses online and even on TMS, when Aggers was talking to a few members of the crowd as I picured him above, he asked how many were attending for the first time, and a whole bunch of hands went up and cheered. And those were just the ones listening to him on the wireless!
I think it's obvious that there is also a lot of interest in Test cricket amongst Indian cricket fans but the problem is that it is not marketed and scheduled as well back home as it is over here. I mean I know you've pointed out the shortcomings of scheduling a Test at Cardiff in May but in India it's even worse. In my dad's time and I think right up to the mid-80s, Chennai always hosted a Test in December/January known as the Pongal Test (you might remember the posts I've made about our harvest festival in January). Now they're lucky to get a Test once every few years and even then it's dished out in such a haphazard manner fans either don't have enough time to plan around it or can't afford it (for whatever reason).
The odd thing is that ask any Indian cricket fan what the score is during a Test match and they will tell you more than you cared to know, but ask him/her if they've been to an actual game and they'll probably say no. During my first few years here I felt it was kinda the same way with English cricket fans. Most of them seemed to be lying dormant, not making a big fuss about the fact that they followed the game but always keen to know what the score was (unlike their football or rugby cousins). But I digress.
I hope people with a love for the longer format will make their way into the upper echelons of the BCCI and ICC because I think it's obvious that there's a way to balance all three formats of the game and keep it commercially viable. But I'm not going to count my chickens just yet.