Manchester: Two days before the larger-than-life Indian-Pakistan World Cup cricket match, on a cloudy yet chilly day with a freezing breeze, the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire Cricket Club, seems more than peaceful.
Not a sound anywhere, except a few Indian journalists, and the ground staff working their socks off to get the picturesque ground ready for Sunday.
It’s been a strange week here, in Northwest England. The weather’s been playing hide-and-seek and as the ICC organisers and volunteers trudged down the Old Trafford turf, the sun came out after a thunderous spell of rain for 15 minutes.
The forecast for Manchester has been moderate with Saturday and Sunday expecting mostly cloudy weather with one or two spells of rain. As the groundstaff worked around the outfield, the picture looks significantly better than what it was in tropical Nottingham.
In a World Cup where every team is playing nine group league matches, six wins will all but confirm the ticket to the semi-final. From the worst case scenario, India still can cope with another washout, given that they will play relatively weaker opponents like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan at the back end of the group stage, but that’s certainly not what the fans want!
Infrastructure-wise, it was felt that some World Cup venues are not up to the mark. Trent Bridge on Thursday was a case in point. A cover to put the entire outfield under wraps, like the Cricket Association of Bengal does it at Eden Gardens, would have ensured some play. Why a Test centre like Trent Bridge falls short of the required standards is anybody’s guess.
Sold out contest
According to Lancashire Country Cricket Club, 70 per cent of the enquiries for the India-Pakistan match have come from India and the tickets were sold-out within 48 hours. “Because of the huge demand, we created more packages and at this very moment, we have only 200 packages left for those who would like to still make it for the big game,” said Dan Whitehead, Corporate Sales and Business Development Manager at Cricket Lancashire, via ICC.
Besides the India-Pakistan Match, Manchester will also host the India-West Indies match. For nearly a year, the city has been preparing to receive the Indian fans for the big event.
And even if many won’t be amongst the lucky 26,000 who will get a seat at the stadium for the India-Pakistan match, many will certainly come to the city to watch the game from as close as possible to the India team and feel the vibrancy of that night. The Fanzone in Cathedral Gardens in Manchester Centre will be showing live screenings of all World Cup action over the weekend, along with live music, entertainment and food and drinks from around the globe, as well as exciting street cricket activities for all to try!
