Feeling Empty..
After the first day of the second ABN Amro Twenty20 cup, anyone who watched the matches can vouch that this is going to be an exciting tournament. The pendulum was swinging till the last ball was bowled. Anyone who left the stadium or switched the channel during the penultimate over of Karachi vs Lahore match thinking that Karachi has already won the match would have been shocked to read about Lahore’s victory in the papers.
The excitement of the Twenty20 cricket, the national stars, colorful kits, floodlights, everything was there. The only thing missing were the spectators. After seeing full houses at Lahore last year the almost empty National Stadium in Karachi provided a stark contrast. I hope things pick up in the coming days, otherwise PCB would be wise to keep Lahore as the venue for the tournament and Karachittes will only have to blame themselves for it.
P.S. Very disappointed at the way Karachi Dolphins lost the game. They should have won it and that is what they thought as well, unfortunately there were two overs left and Lahore took advantage of this and fought their way back.
i have to admit that i switched the channel in 17th over.. amazing that lahore still, somehow, managed to win :) .. better luck to karachi next time
why was stadium empty? ticket, people were not informed about 20/20 thing or just lack of interest? difficult to imagine lack of interest thingie after seeing wonderful crownds in recent ODI
Where were the people? At the dental mela of course:)
No way! Might be at the Pak Wall Street… I mean the IIC Road… At the moment while sitting in my office at 11:15 pm, I can see numerous bright lights across the road… Phew! We Karachiites started to work like NYC… :D Good going I must say… By the way, I think Lahore is a much better option for this 20-20 thing. Karachiites have different ways to enjoy. What you say?
Actually, there isn’t yet any reason to feel this disappointed. An AFP report in the Dawn said there were as many as 1000 people at one point present to watch the Stallions vs. Eagles game at the UBL Sports Complex yesterday, easily much more then the crowd we saw at the NSK.
I watched most of last year’s tournament and in Lahore too, the competition only started getting good crowds once the first few games were out of the way, and the word spread around about how fun this was, and especially after that Malik incident, things really heated up after that.
I’m confident we’re going to get more crowds as we go on, especially tomorrow, as it is going to Sunday, and hopefully without any Malik like controversies.
Karachites aren’t any less passionate about cricket (or any sport for that matter) then Lahoris, so no reason to think we wont match the full house they produced for last year’s final, I reckon we’ll probably do even better.
And yeah, did anyone even know, Lahore hasn’t produced a single out and out full house all season!
On the PCB’s part, they could no worse then improve the conditions at the NSK a little bit to make it a more conducive environment for people to go and watch the cricket at. The place is in dire straits if you ask me, in desperate need of a wide ranging renovation, everything from the roof, to the stands, to the bathrooms needs repairs. It’s actually to our (i.e. Karachites) credit that we still keep on giving full houses match after match for international games despite the poor in-stadium facilities here.
Hey guys ZAINUB has a really cool real time clock on a very cool blog…..i wish INZI or imran nazeer had a similar blog…..
zenu baba ! i think its a baseball and not a cricket ball…..