Take note of the dwindling crowd at our Test matches
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It is a gigantic compassion to glimpse only miniature spectator surveillance at these closely contested Test matches at home venues. Spectator interest should have been at the forefront of the attentions of authorities of Sri Lanka Cricket. They should very well comprehend that a Test match will not be booming without a weighty spectator audience.
In the matches played in Pallekelle and the SSC in recently, there were an abundant of vacant seats made available by SLC at a cost. Such barrenness is not felt when Test matches are played in nations like India Bangladesh, Australia and England. Sri Lankan fans also are equally passionate about cricket. But the non-affluent must hurdle over obvious constraints to watch a Test match unlike our counterparts in overseas countries.
In Sri Lanka there are enough and more cricket enthusiasts who are non-affluent but fanatical to arrive at the venues. They would be buoyant to gaze at Test cricket with zest and passion if afforded this scenario. Some types of such incentives have been made accessible to attract schoolboys to make the stands somewhat full so that the bareness in the stands would not be felt.
It is pertinent to mention the SLC authorities have not made any endeavour to draw obsessive spectators to venues. There had been only a handful of spectators during the entire duration of Tests. They should have known that our cricketers need a boost to uplift their morale especially as we are playing at home.
This is food for superlative thought for the authorities of the SLC. This should have been a matter treated as precedence as these dour scenes with barren stands should not be tolerable, exposed to the world which is telecast worldwide.
Strategies should also have been strained up to magnetize spectators by compliance of incentives such as slashed tickets, shelter, pipe borne water etc. The low attendance reflects very shoddily on our cricket which is highly ranked amongst the world’s cricketing fraternity, as Sri Lanka has come to be known widely worldwide because of the cricketing expertise.
The Test in Galle against touring England team was however patronised by many as it was the farewell Test of Rangana Herath. The SLC should take steps to attract spectators for the Pallekelle and the SSC venues as a huge contingent of English fans representing the Barmy Army would-be present to bolster the English team.
Sunil Thenabadu, e mail sthenabadu@hotmail.com