ICC World Cup 2023: England versus New Zealand in Ahmedabad, a soft launch at biggest cricket stadium in the world | Cricket-world-cup News

It’s a breezy morning at the city’s most popular tour spot, the Gandhi Ashram. Around 100-odd sightseers explore the epicentre of Indian freedom movement the banks of Sabarmati river. A few kilometres away lies the epicentre of modern-day Indian cricket – the biggest cricket stadium in the world named after the Prime Miner Narendra Modi where the 2023 World Cup will begin and also end on November 19. Starting Thursday, when defending champion England play New Zealand in the opener, thousands will drive to the imposing venue, many stopping for Bapu’s darshan on way to their cricketing pilgrimage,Be it the Ashram Road, or the city’s other main arteries, there are no elaborate World Cup signages and fan-parks announcements on hoardings. There was a big model of the trophy at the airport; that’s about it. Ahmedabad isn’t shouting out from the rooftops, it is engulfed in a comfortable pre-tournament silence. In the streets, if there is any talk, it’s still around the tickets for the India-Pakan game. A few have landed up outside the stadium looking for black-market touts. “2000 rupees for 32,000,” says one fan. Another says, “I heard it was a lakh!”.
Not too far from those willing to pay a Rs 1 lakh to witness India play Pakan, on the other side of the giant gates of the stadium, sat 10 captains for the pre-World Cup conference. Indian captain Rohit Sharma was asked about the pressure of playing at home, Pakan and the elusive ICC trophy. Sat closest to the trophy, which was on display, Rohit paused, swayed his head, smiled, and even as a light laughter began to go around the room, the seemingly confident captain would say, “I know what’s at stake.”

Sitting next to Rohit was New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who at one point was likely to miss the tournament due to an nasty knee injury he picked up in the IPL. After a remarkable recovery, though he will be missing the first match against England, the team that pipped his team the last time, he will soon start playing a role. Ironically, England which used to look down on the ODIs less than a decade back has been revived first an Irishman Eoin Morgan, who was in attendance today in Ahmedabad, and then Ben Stokes, who was born in New Zealand, and coached the Kiwi Brendon McCullum.
For some reason, it’s the Kiwi-heads who seem to have cracked the ICC code; they are always in the final. Jos Buttler, however, is the England ODI captain, and he made a cautious line about every team starting equally.

All captains parroted the line about how they had to take it one game at a time. If there was any bold statement, it came from the Afghanan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi when asked Ravi Shastri, Indian’ cricket event’s DJ for ever and a day, about how bowling is their strength. “Our spinners are good, but in this world cup our batting will make a strong statement.” Sitting next to him was Pat Cummins, one of the two clean-shaven captains along with Buttler amidst a beard-feast all around them; he turned and nodded his head at the Afghan.
There was also a gentle remark that Pakan’s Babar Azam managed to slip in along with the homilies that triggered knowing nods in the room. Shastri again with a question about how the Hyderabadi people have been showering the team with their hospitality, and Babar thanked the people before adding, “it would have been nice to have Pakani people in the stands”. The Visa issue has still proved unresolvable as yet.

Politics and cricket go hand in hand at this venue. It’s where Modi and Home Miner Amit Shah first wet their feet in cricket adminration, with the Gujarat Cricket Association, reshaping an erstwhile-ravine-land-turned-to-stadium into the world’s most populated cricket arena. Shah’s son, Jay, is the powerful BCCI secretary and face of India’s cricket adminration. There is a buzz among the officials that the ‘Sahib’ might come for the first game. No one is willing to say anything more as no one knows for sure. “For sure, he will come for the India-Pakan match,” says an official who doesn’t want to be named.
Unlike Modi, cricket was a source of pain for Gandhi in some ways. Just before the independence, he would launch a passionate plea to the countrymen to stop the “communal” Pentangular tournament, that was played along religious lines between teams of Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and a team of Rest following other faiths.
“I would like the public of Bombay to revise their sporting code and erase from it communal matches. I can understand matches between colleges and institutions, but I never understood the reasons for having Hindu, Parsi, Muslim and other communal Elevens. I should have thought that such unsportsmanlike divisions would be considered taboos in sporting language and sporting manners,” wrote Gandhi. “Can we not have some field of life which cannot be touched the communal spirit?”

The tournament would soon be disbanded after Bapu’s request. Those were different times.Most Read
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Back at the Ashram, a group of middle-aged women from Telangana are gasping and giggling; as they part, it emerges that they were staring at the photo of some of the actual postcards that Gandhi received. The reason for their gasp is on the postcard address – Mahatma Gandhi, New Delhi. Undoubtedly, they all reached the most famous man in India.
Gandhi ashram has hory, humour, tragedy, pain, horical events, trivia strewn around every pillar. (Express photo)
It’s a tastefully maintained ashram. It has hory, humour, tragedy, pain, horical events, trivia strewn around every pillar. Like his letter to Hitler, that starts with ”My friend”, is a plea to stop the war. Though not at the Ashram, there is credible horical reference of Gandhi indulging cricket. Ramachandra Guha, the foremost Gandhi scholar of our times, wrote about the occasion when Laxmi Merchant, the ser of Vijay Merchant, India’s most famous opener before Sunil Gavaskar, sought Gandhi’s autograph. Gandhi supposedly trawled through Laxmi’s book, stopped at a page with the 1933-34 MCC team that toured India and was led Douglas Jardine, of the bodyline fame. Gandhi scrolled down, added an extra member to the 16-men squad: “17. M.K. Gandhi”.

While cricket is in the pink of health in these parts, the ODI format faces an identity crisis. One-day cricket’s younger brother, T20 format, is furiously kicking a charming fuss around the world with mushrooming leagues. No one anywhere has started a 50-over league. Befittingly, India, whose 1983 triumph kickstarted an insatiable appetite for the 50-over format, would be voting on its future over the next two months: will the fans turn out in huge numbers even for the non-India matches? Rohit was sure they would.