MUMBAI: With the cringe-worthy faux patriotic brouhaha having run its course, all the cricket world’s attention is on Manchester as it gets ready to host the World Cup match between the game’s greatest rivals — India and Pakistan.
A sell-out Old Trafford awaits the two teams for Sunday’s game, as well as an estimated viewing audience of 1 billion – all nursing one common hope – that the weather gods co-operate.
Weather forecasting platform AccuWeather has predicted chances of rains in Greater Manchester on June 16. The Old Trafford Cricket Ground, the venue of the India-Pakistan match, is situated in this county.
The tickets were sold out minutes after they were offered online. They are still available but can cost an eager fan more than 2000 pounds (Rs 60,000) per ticket. The local administration has taken all precautionary measures to make sure that the game is held in a smooth manner despite the fact that thousands will turn up, many without valid tickets. According to reports, a huge policing operation has been planned which includes participation of armed officers.
Old Trafford has a capacity of 25,000 which is just a fraction of the 700,000 applications that were made for the tickets. Fully aware that thousands of fans would be in Manchester without valid tickets on Sunday, a fan zone — which can hold up to 3,500 people — has been established in Cathedral Gardens where the game can be viewed by fans on a large screen.
Similar facilities have been set up in other major centres in Britain. One of the largest ones would be established in London’s Wembley locality catering for around 5000 fans.
Away from the grounds host broadcaster Star Sports is pulling all stops on what is the biggest game of the World Cup thus far by a long mile.
As the India vs Pakistan match is expected to be the most-watched match in this World Cup (thus far), Star Sports is expected to earn Rs 700 million from the clash just through advertisements, SportzPower has been informed by reliable industry sources. For some context, the network raked in Rs 450 million in ad sales from the India-Pakistan clash during the 2016 World Cup hosted by the BCCI. The biggest difference betweenthen and now of course, is not just Star’s OTT platform Hotstar, but also that the broadcast has been made available in seven languages ensuring maximum reach.
Now all that is awaited, and hoped for is for the rain gods to play ball.
