da betsson： The overwhelming reception for the final in Mysore has lessons for the tournament’s organisers
da realsbet： Siddarth Ravindran in Mysore14-Jan-2010The cliché about attendances in domestic matches is that they are watchedby three men and a dog. When I walked into the swank Rajiv GandhiInternational Stadium on the first morning of a Ranji gamebetween Hyderabad and Mumbai last month, I was greeted by three scorersand a black stray, Bunty, which spends its days around the pavilion. Ahandful of journalists joined later, and a few dozen spectators turned upto watch a boring draw on a track meant to kill bowlers.Every shot reverberated around the empty ground, every batsman reaching amilestone was greeted only by a few shouts from his team-mates in thedressing-room. A young cricketer looking to entertain, had no one toentertain.That was perhaps an insignificant league match, but even at theChinnaswamy Stadium for the semi-finals only about a thousand, at best,turned up on a Sunday to support an exciting young Karnataka team that hadswept all before them. Even the presence of Rahul Dravid couldn’t enticemore people to the ground. And with the home side not looking for the winafter taking a massive first-innings lead, there was nothing to interest even die-hard followers on a desultory final day.The only purpose served by such a day is to skew a player’s statistics,making it harder for lay fans to judge his worth. For example, AnirudhSingh tops Hyderabad’s batting averages this season with 52.33, but 103 ofhis runs came against the bowling might of S Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik,Abhinav Mukund and other Tamil Nadu batsmen on the final day of an alreadydead match. Take out that innings, and his average drops to a more prosaic35.67.There are already murmurs that, with the advent of the IPL, some playersare reluctant to go through the Ranji grind. Contrast the easy cash andmaniacal support from the stands in those games against the empty seatsand the occasional purposelessness of a Ranji match, you can start to see why thefour-day game may pall for a few cricketers.More matches like the final at the Gangothri Glades in Mysore willcertainly check that trend. The buzzing atmosphere was one familiar toanyone who has attended an India limited-overs game, and the stadium wasfilled to capacity on each day. A fast bowler runs in to bowl to thecrescendo of the fans’ cry and Karnataka’s appeals for caught-behind orlbw are echoed by a baying throng. Not something the average first-classcricketer experiences regularly.On Thursday, the combination of a riveting finish and ensured a packed stadium at the start of play itself. The unlucky onesfound themselves trees to perch on, and others watched from embankmentsrising behind the stands. Only one half of the Gangothri Glades hasstands, the other half has a perimeter fence, which also had people clingingon. When Manish Pandey was blazing away, a Mexican wave got going and eventhose by the fence joined in, somehow managing a hands-free balance.Soon after, there was shocked silence for a few moments at Pandey’sdismissal before the crowd rose for a standing ovation for the youngster -a fitting postscript to a memorable innings.Post-lunch, with the game on edge, Sunil Joshi and Stuart Binny wereapplauded for every ball they left alone; every delivery theygot bat on ball was met with roars of approval, and for boundaries eventhe man precariously hanging on midway up a lamp-post screamed and waved atiny red-and-yellow Karnataka flag.There were some disagreeable bits of behaviour from the crowd as well.When they found out the umpire had wrongly ruled Amit Verma’scaught-behind, the officials were greeted with the unimaginative chants of “down, down umpires” as they walked to the pavilion for lunch. OnceKarnataka lost the thriller, similar shouts were directed at RobinUthappa, who had failed in both innings, by a section of fans searchingfor a scapegoat.Overall, though, the absorbing match provided two key lessons for theorganisers of the Ranji Trophy – make pitches result-oriented, and thefuture of the tournament is in the smaller cities, where crowds aren’t satedby regular international cricket.