The ODI World Cup is on and my son who is in Australia tells me there is absolutely no buzz there about the tournament. Cricket is important for the Aussies, check how they come together for the Ashes, but the fact that there is no excitement in a country that is a five-time winner indicates the irrelevance of the one-day format (which this blog is not about) and the missed opportunity – which this blog is about.
India, a cricket powerhouse, controls the money purse, and the sport is a huge draw. But, the empty stands in matches not featuring India betrayed both the future of the ODI and the missed opportunity.
Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach was not wrong in saying that the India-Pakistan match looked like a BCCI event and not an ICC event. Some Indians might rejoice at this comment, but there would be many who agree that this is not something to gloat about.
A tournament without fan support for participating countries is an incomplete World Cup. By not creating an adequate buzz or a favorable environment for international tourists, India missed a great opportunity.
Let us do some stats – total round-robin matches -45, those not featuring India – 36 (assuming all India matches would be crowded out by Indian fans). Average stadium capacity – 40000. Assuming we had sold about 30% of the seats to foreign visitors – we would have lured some 0.4 Mn of them.
On average a foreign tourist spends about $2500 (these statistics are hard to find as NRIs mask the mathematics).
0.4 Mn plus visitors spending $2500 would have added a billion dollars to the Indian economy.
This would have been possible if there had been a concerted effort by the Tourism Department, BCCI, Travel sites, airlines, etc, a few months before the World Cup started.
Is this wishful thinking? No. Qatar was able to attract 1.4 million fans to its country for the football World Cup. Admittedly football is more popular, but 0.4 Mn would not have been an overstretch in India.
This also calls for large-heartedness. Letting other fans get easy visas, making the stadium announcements more balanced, and making it easy for tourists to get hotel bookings – this was an opportunity for India to shine brighter, but alas it has been missed.
India has been making giant strides in recent times. G- 20, Chandrayaan, fastest growing large economy, etc. But an area where we have made minuscule progress is in tourist arrivals. India ranks 54th in the world and 6th even in Asia in terms of tourist arrivals. Even the tiny Hong Kong has more visitors than India.
For millions of travelers across the globe, India does not feature in their consideration set. This is a tragedy as India has much to offer. An event like the World Cup is/was an opportunity to push itself into a tourist’s radar.
Hope this lesson is learned for future tournaments. India might be planning to bid for the 2036 Olympics – hope this World Cup is a wake-up call on how not to miss such opportunities.
