What's new

[PICTURES] Pakistan v Sri Lanka LOI series crowd watch

MenInG

MenInG

PakPassion Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Runs
218,119
Some news floating about low ticket sales.

Picture from video from about an hour ago - guess people still to come

Capture.JPG
 
Its a working day as well.
But for the sake of cricket i hope its a house full.It will be incredibly dissapointing otherwise.
 
e866a68b-86ea-4876-a2b4-4201258e6976.jpg

Bit on the empty side at toss -

Could be security etc holding people back
 
Make all the excuses you want. Cricket is dead in Pakistan. No one really cares. India England Australia and all top nations can fill stadiums regardless of day.
 
Horrible turn out!

Even if it is a z SL side, at least come out to support your own players and nation.
 
0HO80v0.png


The crowd is looking a bit better now. Expecting it to be better towards the evening.
 
Green Patriot said:
Its a working day as well.
But for the sake of cricket i hope its a house full.It will be incredibly dissapointing otherwise.
Click to expand...

rescheduling hasnt helped and its a working day. But Im sure they will get more people in as the day wears on..Pakistanis need to be brought back into the fold having watched cricket on the TV for so long.
 
I always remind ppl of this but in 2008 during the Asia Cup match between Pakistan and India was half empty. Passion for the game of cricket has left Karachi.

Fyi I'm from Karachi.
 
It was tough for the PCB to marker this series since the venue wasn't even final until 10 days ago.
 
The problem is with presidential level security comes it's own challenges where thorough checks are done and crowds in our part of the world are not very patient when it comes to queuing up properly and getting to the grounds early for the start of play.

What was a downside was that only 20% of the tickets were sold for this game now it could be because it is a working day or what not but the matter of the fact is that cricket is back in Karachi after 10 years and it would have been a great advert for the game had they at least sold even 50-70% tickets.

Still it could be a better turn out in the 2nd inns of the game.
 
the Great Khan said:
rescheduling hasnt helped and its a working day. But Im sure they will get more people in as the day wears on..Pakistanis need to be brought back into the fold having watched cricket on the TV for so long.
Click to expand...

Actually slowly the crowd is building up.At the toss it was nearly empty but now some stands are filled up and i guess as the evening approaches their will be alot more people.
 
Filling up slowly. Not the worst crowd for a Monday in Karachi after logistical problems.
 
Had rainy past week.

It is a working day.

Most people are on day to day wages.

Cricket is alive and kicking in Pakistan.

Management needs to be better at scheduling.
 
This is sad to see in the old days we use to NSK, and it was always full.
 
This is most embarrassing. Apparently the PCB did not create much hype or promotions for this series. Can you imagine something like this happening in India or Bangladesh?
 
Can’t believe people are even trying to argue that there is a decent crowd lol.

It’s not even 60% full. This is embarrassing.
 
It’s so funny hearing the excuses on why it’s empty even though cricket has been gone for over a decade. Even when Pakistan play abroad say England and against India and we are out numbered, theirs so many excuses. Oh it’s ramdahan oh it’s a government conspiracy
Oh the traffic. Hilarious
 
kk1992 said:
Had rainy past week.

It is a working day.

Most people are on day to day wages.

Cricket is alive and kicking in Pakistan.

Management needs to be better at scheduling.
Click to expand...

agreed but still expected people to come out in numbers.
 
The problem is, people will not come if you keep inviting 2nd or 3rd XIs to your country.
 
Saj said:
The problem is, people will not come if you keep inviting 2nd or 3rd XIs to your country.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Exactly what I thought. Lack of interest because of this reason. You will see full house in every PSL match.
 
Runner Up said:
Thank you. Exactly what I thought. Lack of interest because of this reason. You will see full house in every PSL match.
Click to expand...

Fans will only accept 2nd or 3rd XI teams once or twice. If it becomes a regular thing people will lose interest.
 
The PCB did not promote this series properly, there was no buzz like the PSL. That has made the difference as well.
 
Sorry guys you seem to have forgotten. Crowds for ODIs and Tests in Karachi and Lahore were down long before the 2009 tragedy. If you want crowds to come you have to play in the smaller centers. Faisalabad, Multan Pindi etc.
 
You see even there is no interest in Match Thread. Only two pages so stop blaming the crowd lol :P
 
Was a very good crowd for the second part of Pakistan innings and the start of Lanka innings.
 
Saj said:
Fans will only accept 2nd or 3rd XI teams once or twice. If it becomes a regular thing people will lose interest.
Click to expand...

I have seen lots of excuses and this is another one. Fact is the national team has come back to Karachi for the first time in many, many years and most of Karachi doesn't care. This stadium should have been full 20 times over, so that even when you account for people who don't want to come because of 2nd rate team, rain, work etc, there would still be a full house with people bursting for more tickets.

To me this shows that Pakistan should play their home games in England, where all of us turn out in numbers and give our boys the support they deserve.
 
If I was a Karachite I too wouldn’t pay money to watch these teams. The Sri Lankan team is 2nd string and the Pakistan team is nothing special. Maybe Babar Azam, Amir and Fakhar whenever he performs.
 
Disappointing crowd turn up looked like they were playing in UAE not Karachi at the toss.
 
One main issue is that without being disrespectful to the current group of players, there is a lack of superstars in the team - the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar etc.

The type of players who in the past would come to watch irrespective of how the team did.
 
Saj said:
One main issue is that without being disrespectful to the current group of players, there is a lack of superstars in the team - the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar etc.

The type of players who in the past would come to watch irrespective of how the team did.
Click to expand...

I was going to say this as well. And unhelpfully, I doubt most people in the crowd would be able to name a single Sri Lankan player from today’s team.

In fact the only person on the field today who draws a crowd right now is Babar Azam. Which is rather surprising actually. Not doubting his quality as a batsman, but you would think his style of batting wouldn’t give him the fan following in Pakistan that is normally reserved for fast bowlers or hard hitting batsmen.

But there’s no doubt right now, Babar is a box office name. When he recently played county, and one of the matches was streamed on their site, it crashed because of the number of people trying to watch the match, just due to Babar.

And it was evident from the crowd today too, they had come for Babar.

Amir had this adulation but has lost it recently due to his average performances.

I think Shaheen or maybe Hasnain may become very popular in the future.
 
Cricket is coming to Pakistan after a long time.

So why not give tickets at half prices or may be free tickets provided to children and teenagers

At the moment showing a positive image about Pakistan cricket is more important than making money for the board. They should not see this series as a cash cow
 
globalcitizen said:
Cricket is coming to Pakistan after a long time.

So why not give tickets at half prices or may be free tickets provided to children and teenagers

At the moment showing a positive image about Pakistan cricket is more important than making money for the board. They should not see this series as a cash cow
Click to expand...

Tickets were free for students today.
 
Disappointing how empty it's been. Even though it's not a full strength SL side, people saying it's a C side are exaggerating it slightly. I would have thought people would be queuing up for this.
 
I hear the marketing was very poor too and the provincial govt didnt help out this time
Lahore will be jam packed though
 
Think rains caused havoc in Karachi

Also for Lahore, remember that dengue fever issue remains so am not sure how many people will go out
 
I thought for a Monday, it was not a bad crowd. People have work, school, and life to take care of. Rain didn't help at all. Do we know the official attendance? A lot of the people were not sitting on their seats but standing on the floor to watch.
 
zoeyfactor said:
I thought for a Monday, it was not a bad crowd. People have work, school, and life to take care of. Rain didn't help at all. Do we know the official attendance? A lot of the people were not sitting on their seats but standing on the floor to watch.
Click to expand...

In a city of 20 million people, expecting 50,000 to turn out even on a working day was not too much to ask
 
globalcitizen said:
Cricket is coming to Pakistan after a long time.

So why not give tickets at half prices or may be free tickets provided to children and teenagers

At the moment showing a positive image about Pakistan cricket is more important than making money for the board. They should not see this series as a cash cow
Click to expand...

Why should PCB have to give out freebies or half-price tickets.
 
Saj said:
One main issue is that without being disrespectful to the current group of players, there is a lack of superstars in the team - the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar etc.

The type of players who in the past would come to watch irrespective of how the team did.
Click to expand...

We have plenty of players who THINK they are superstars, does that not count ?
 
PCB only got the all-clear from SLCB one week before the series began so there wasn't enough time for proper marketing.

A Sri Lanka C team doesn't help neither does the recent bad weather and spate of illness it's caused.
 
I didn't even bother following this on TV. Just checked the internet for the score like 2-3 times during the entire match.

I don't blame people for not coming out, given the opposition and the poor marketing/hype for this series. It should have been made into a big deal - ODI cricket returning to Pak - but it was poorly handled.
 
Savak said:
This is most embarrassing. Apparently the PCB did not create much hype or promotions for this series. Can you imagine something like this happening in India or Bangladesh?
Click to expand...

You would never, ever find empty stadium in India/Bangladesh in LOIs. Crowds turn up no matter the opposition or result, match after match.

I am worried about cricket in Pakistan, 10 year void has damaged immensely.
 
Rxj2Ebp.png


Not much of a turnout so far.

Missing an epic chance to watch Iftikhar and Wahab bowling to Gunathilaka and Thirimanne....
 
This will be a 300 plus chase..and with Sri lankans bowling plus Sandakan in there i think will be very tough
 
I don't think pakistanis care much for ODIs anymore. I think even if a full strength australia or england team was coming turnout would be similar. People don't have 7 hours to waste sitting at a game plus extra 2h getting to the venue and dealing with security etc, especially when they can watch comfortably at home and just watch the parts they want to sit through. It's still quite hot there too. I think only an india vs pakistan ODI series would result in a guaranteed sell out for every game regardless of when and where in pakistan its held.

But t20s will be a different story. Much easier to sit through a 3h game.
 
Lahoris have certainly bashed the myth that karachites are the most passionate about cricket in Pakistan. Those crowd in odi's were embarrassing. Especially when you consider the odi was being played after a gap of 10 years.
 
Great reaction from the Lahore crowd to the Sri Lankan anthem.
 
Just hope they see a good game from a Pakistan pov
 
Are the Sri Lankan fans visitors or do they live in Pak?
 
aloo paratha said:
You can't compare an ODI on weekdays with a T20 on a Saturday evening.
Click to expand...
The second ODI was originally scheduled for Sunday IIRC, and there were rumours that only 20% of the tickets had been sold days before it had been rescheduled.
 
MenInG said:
EGHpSJBW4AIwRSt
EGHpSZ-XUAEh3lw


Fair comparison?
Click to expand...

Not really a fair comparison. Schedule a T20 in Karachi on a Saturday evening, and NSK will easily fill up. Similarly, if you schedule an ODI in Lahore on a Monday, GSL will be half empty too.
 
Ellipsism said:
The second ODI was originally scheduled for Sunday IIRC, and there were rumours that only 20% of the tickets had been sold days before it had been rescheduled.
Click to expand...

Because it had been raining throughout the weekend, people in Karachi probably knew there won’t be a match on Sunday so not many tickets were sold.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The Bald Eagle
Asia Cup 2025: Crowd Watch Thread
Replies
12
Views
741
hassan918
hassan918
BouncerGuy
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka T20I Tri-Series (2025) - Discussion Thread
Replies
35
Views
985
The Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle
BouncerGuy
Pakistan v Bangladesh Test series (2024) - Crowd Watch
Replies
45
Views
2K
FearlessRoar
FearlessRoar
Cricket Warrior
Sri Lanka (140/4) defeat Bangladesh (139/5) comfortably by 6 wickets in Match 05 of Asia Cup 2025
3 4 5
Replies
381
Views
5K
AamchiMumbaikar
AamchiMumbaikar
FearlessRoar
ICC T20 World Cup 2024: Crowd watch thread
2
Replies
92
Views
4K
FearlessRoar
FearlessRoar
Back
Top