BCCI Needs a Chief Fans Officer

Being a cricket fan all my life, I often repented not watching any matches live on the ground, especially in the era of Tendulkar, Lara, Akram, Ponting, and so forth. A few years ago, I decided to watch as many matches as possible in the ground.

In the last two years, I watched a Test match in Mumbai and a few World Cup matches in Melbourne & Sydney.

In India, watching a match can be an adventure in itself — given how unprofessionally BCCI conducts them — especially Test matches. I have not watched many IPL matches, and maybe they are conducted better since the franchisees manage the show.

BCCI’s apathy shows a total lack of respect towards the paying fan. Given that most of its money comes from TV deals and sponsorship, BCCI has no interest to make fans experience a pleasurable experience.

Before I list my list of issues, here is a thread from someone else:

https://twitter.com/phadke_shilpa/status/1627385935389409280

Recently, I watched the First Test match between India and Australia at the Vidharbha Cricket Stadium in Nagpur.

Here are a few things I had to go through that show how poorly fans are treated:

1. Cannot enter using an online ticket: You have to first go to the VCA office in the city, which is 1 hour away from the stadium, to get a physical ticket. Imagine the pain for outstation fans who book a hotel near the stadium, having to take a two-hour cab ride just to get the ticket. Many fans who ignored the instructions landed directly in the stadium and were denied entry.
2. Poor mobile internet in the stadium: The mobile internet was either purposely jammed or weak due to the large number of people in one place. Many were struggling to make UPI payments for cabs or rickshaws. Watching a day-long match without access to the internet to catch up with work emails or chats is horrible. Isn’t the BCCI powerful enough to ask or pay the mobile companies to set up extra towers — even if temporarily?
3. Poor food choices: The only food choices were samosas, wraps etc. by some local vendors which looked very unhygienic. While it is OK for a few hours T20 match, you expect decent food options when you have to sit the whole day. In fact, the prices were very low (e.g. 30 Rs for two samosas). I don’t mind paying much more to get good quality food. Couldn’t BCCI partner with top QSR chains like Dominoes?
4. Foreign tourists: There was no option for bottled water. I could spot a few Australian supporters, but I was wondering how they managed food and water. Given how sensitive their bellies are, I wonder if they also ate the 30 Rs samosas like the rest of us!
5. No lift: Most stands were on the third and fifth floors, but no lift access. Even though there was a lift, it had a strict “senior citizens only” policy. While I didn’t need the lift, but climbing five floors is not easy for everyone. E.g. with small kids, or minor injury etc.
6. Cannot take anything inside the stadium: Not even coins were allowed inside. I understand this is to avoid fans throwing things at players. However, stopping people from taking a spectacle cover, ladies’ small purses, books, etc. is overkill. At least there should be a booth where people can leave their bags (at their own risk).
7. Tickets sold too late: Tickets are not sold until a few weeks in advance. How are outstation people supposed to plan? Why will foreigners come if they don’t even know if they will get a ticket? On the contrary, the Ashes is in June/July, and the matches are sold out already in Feb.
8. Ugly grounds: BCCI is the richest board and still pastes the whole ground with ugly adverts of Pan Bahar! Every open space has a hoarding. Just looks so ugly!

The Dharamshala match fiasco is another proof of how BCCI manages its show. This is how the stadium looked in Dec 2022 — where it is clear that the ground will not be ready for the Mar 1st match. Still, they didn’t cancel the match until Feb 13th leaving the fans who had booked flight tickets (including me) in the lurch. Maybe they wanted to try their best to please their boss, who happens to be a union minister.

In the 2023 budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned that the government intends to promote tourism in a big way. However, tourism is not just about developing tourist spots or building statues. One of the key aspects of tourism is conducting big sports, music/ art festivals and events cleanly and professionally. Such events can bring in both international and national tourists. Today, many Indians go outside India to enjoy such events, which is a loss to the Indian GDP. If such events were conducted professionally in India, a good percentage of this money would be spent within the country.

BCCI should consider appointing a “Chief Fan Officer” to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for stadiums to follow. Being the world’s richest cricket board, watching a cricket match should be an “amazing experience”. Not a frustrating one where you think, why did I even come!?