World Cup 2023: Virender Sehwag has unique suggestion to fill empty stands in non-India matches

The England vs New Zealand ODI World Cup 2023 opener was not able draw a crowd on Thursday, 5 October. The majority of the seats were left empty in Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium as Jos Buttler and Tom Latham's sides took the field in the afternoon.

Social media was abuzz about what was unfolding in front of them and said that it was a sad state of affairs that non-India matches were not drawing attention in ICC's marquee event. Many pointed fingers at the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who released tickets at the last minute in the run-up to the ODI World Cup.

Bookmyshow, the official ticketing partner of the tournament showed that majority of the seats were filled in the stadium, however, the reality turned out to be starkly different. Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag said that



the BCCI should give free tickets for school children and college-goers in the non-India games.

"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," Sehwag tweeted on Thursday.

This is not the first drama that the BCCI has faced in the run-up to the World Cup. BCCI changed dates for as many as 9 matches right ahead of the tournament adding to mass confusion. Bookmyshow was also made to release extra tickets for the tournament after the website crashed initially and many complained of massive queues for online tickets.