Thu. Feb 13th, 2025

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has suggested that free tickets should be given to school and college students for matches not involving India in the Cricket World Cup 2023. This comes after the opening match of the tournament in Ahmedabad saw empty stands, leaving many cricket fans surprised. Sehwag believes that the current lack of interest in One Day International (ODI) cricket can be reversed by providing better access for young people and allowing them to experience the excitement of a World Cup game.

In a social media post on X (formerly called Twitter), Sehwag stated, “Hopefully after office hours, there should be more people coming in. But for games not featuring Bharat, there should be free tickets for school and college children. With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup game and players get to play in front of a full stadium.”

The World Cup opener on Thursday saw New Zealand win the toss and choose to bat against defending champions England, who were missing key player Ben Stokes due to a hip injury. The match took place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which is the largest cricket stadium in the world. It was a rematch of the thrilling 2019 final, in which England emerged victorious based on a boundary countback rule.

New Zealand, led by Tom Latham in the absence of regular captain Kane Williamson and pace bowler Tim Southee, was further depleted as fast bowler Lockie Ferguson was also unable to play due to injury. England replaced Stokes with Harry Brook, as Stokes could only play as a specialist batsman due to a knee injury that prevented him from bowling. England captain Jos Buttler mentioned that they would have chosen to bowl first if they had won the toss.

The teams for the match were as follows:
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (wk/capt), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk/capt), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner, James Neesham, Trent Boult.

Overall, Sehwag’s proposal aims to attract more spectators to non-India matches by offering free tickets to young students, thereby generating greater interest in ODI cricket.

By admin