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Edward Craig: Delhi's fading faith

October 10th, 2009 by Edward Craig in IPL, Twenty20

Cricket is like a religion in Delhi. Well, like the Church of England in the UK, to be precise: a struggling monolith trying to convince an apathetic population to turn up and take part.

That is just Delhi – and it is not quite as bad as all that. There were 25,000 people watching a well-drilled Victoria Bushrangers side mash the Delhi Daredevils last night. But this was a disappointing turn out and the television cameras never concentrated on the waves of empty seats.

According to one Indian journalist, Delhi is not as cricket-crazy as some other parts of the country. The Feroz Shah Kotla stadium has an ugly beauty about it, especially now the colourful Champions League branding has turned it into Little Cricket World – like a cricket section of EuroDisney – but it underwent a refit only five years ago. “It was a pit. No one cared,” the journalist explains.

Add in perceived corruption from administrators, vicious local police and you can understand the roots of this disillusion – at least that’s what I am told.

Then again, that particular journalist is not from Delhi and was not perfectly objective, so I’ll have to take his words with a pinch of salt – or make a leap of faith.

Edward Craig is deputy editor of The Wisden Cricketer

Posted in IPL, Twenty20 | 3 Comments »



3 Responses to “Edward Craig: Delhi's fading faith”

  1.   Claire Sweeting says:

    I want to visit Little Cricket World! Sounds sweet.

  2.   Victoria Robertson says:

    Hi Ed

    Not sure I like your analogy with the Church of England but I do see what you mean.

    However I never have thought that a Church Service (even when well attended) is quite as rousing as a One day Cricket Match.

    I think that any Church would be thrilled to get about 200 into their Service which would be the equivalent of 25,000 and that is a bad attendance in Delhi!

  3.   dad says:

    Who is this Victoria Robertson who seems to be stalking you aroud India-Amsterdam

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