Record crowd post Covid in 1st Ind-Eng match

Ahmedabad, March 13

The T20 International between India and England at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday possibly saw the largest crowd at a venue ever since cricket resumed post Covid-19 lockdown with as many as 57,000 people, including volunteers and police, attending it, say local officials.

While there have been matches in various stadia around the world with limited crowd capacity, none has been able to so far match the attendance at the Motera stadium thanks to its sheer capacity — it has a capacity of 1,10,000 out of which Gujarat Cricket Association has allowed 50 per cent attendance.

“We had 52,000 official admission through turnstile (tickets). There were 3,000-4,000 complimentary tickets. The rest were police and volunteers, bringing the total to about 57,000,” Anil Patel, the joint secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association, told IANS. 

Another official said that the demand for low priced tickets were more.

“Most of the crowd bought tickets at the low-end, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. There was less demand for high-end tickets,” added the official. 

The first international game to witness spectators was the Australia-New Zealand women’s limited-overs series that began in Brisbane in late September, 2020.

Men’s cricket began witnessing crowds from November-end with crowds being allowed in New Zealand and Australia. However, those were only limited capacities.

IANS