Why blame Ahmedabad’s silence for India’s World Cup final loss to Australia | Cricket News

It’s more than a week since the World Cup final in Ahmedabad, but Australia’s captain Pat Cummins can’t get over the stillness of the “sea of blue” when Virat Kohli walked back to the dressing room. On his return home, Cummins recalled the surreal moment when a jam-packed one lakh-plus capacity stadium had the “feel of a library”. Since that day, Ahmedabad’s quietude has been part of cricket’s animated conversations that hasn’t allowed the World Cup din to die. It has meant so much for so many.For Cummins, it’s the blissful tranquility of reaching a higher leadership plane. For those struggling to process the shock loss of their odds-on favourite home team, the hush was the convenient excuse that explained the sudden anti-climactic end to the team’s never-seen-before majestic march. It was the crowd, not our beloved all-conquering cricketers—this was clearly a less-troubling and more-soothing explanation than the one that questions the team’s suspect big-match temperament.

And then, there were the para-trooping colour writers, those commissioned to read cricket games through political and sociological lenses. New to sporting arenas, they seem to be blessed with the power to read every mind in the stadium from a dance and draw stereotypical conclusions about the city and fans. For them, the noiselessness of the Modi Stadium was a confirmation of the city’s gracelessness.
On November 19, a slew of allegations were hurled at those in the stands to watch the World Cup final. They gave up on the team way too early. They didn’t come up with blood-curdling chants to spur the team on. They didn’t even stay back to clap when Cummins lifted the Cup. Since the World Cup dust has now settled, many heartbreaks partially healed, the team’s creditable showing reasonably applauded and coach Rahul Dravid’s contract renewed, it’s time for some pragmatic soul- searching and answering an important question. Was it fair to taint a city and the fans for a loss?
Ahmedabad: Australian players celebrate with the trophy after winning the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, at the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. (PTI Photo/ Manvender Vash Lav)
For starters, it wasn’t just Ahmedabad that filled the world’s biggest cricket stadium that day. Airports crowded with private jets, special trains from travelling fans and impossible-to-secure hotel bookings – the finals had spectators from around India and the world.
It was a mass frenzy that hit Ahmedabad that weekend. In the backdrop of India’s cakewalk in the league stage and the entertaining win over New Zealand in the semi-final in Mumbai, for those in India Blue the final triumph was a formality. It seemed like a done deal, an eventuality that even the Aussies couldn’t stop.
Rohit Sharma’s team didn’t look like the Indian team of old, until it started to look like the Indian team of old. It was at that stage that the stadium woke up from its daze. What looked like a blue cloak of invincibility till then was suddenly just a jersey available at retail merchandise outlets. All of a sudden the ‘I was there’ emotion was turned into a ‘I wish I wasn’t here’ feeling.

The final wasn’t just another World Cup title contest. It was India’s chance to break their long ICC trophy jinx, Sharma’s shot at redemption and Dravid’s opportunity to get his due. But it all came crashing down. What could have been a possible all-night carnival had turned into a sleepless wake. The well-invested true fan, who had travelled miles to witness hory, would take years to get over the pain. As if struck a thunderbolt, they were stupefied.
Taking fans to task
That didn’t go well with the righteous, self-styled moral police that sets standards for public behaviour at sporting venues and is active on social media. For them, there was no virtue in mourning, and going silent was an unforgivable crime. How dare you walk away without witnessing the tragedy unfolding in front of your eyes? Those with the right stuff, according to them, wipe their tears and applaud when the rivals lift the Cup. It’s only sore losers who go into a shell when hit despair and ask for privacy to lick their wounds.
But is this how the world beyond Ahmedabad behaves? Across the world do students with F on their report cards dance in joy to celebrate the class-toppers? Isn’t it a norm, a national habit, a time-tested sporting routine to switch off the television when the game isn’t going the way one prefers? No, for Ahmedabad the bar was set high. It had to be the bigger person, if not there were consequences. They would be called unsophicated and unsporting. The city’s ugly non-sporting past was raked up and every one, all of the 90,000 fans, inside the stadium was seen with suspicion.
Mumbai: Locals watch a live telecast of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 final match between India and Australia, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. (PTI Photo)
The less-aggressive Ahmedabad bashers on the day blame the fans for not cheering enough. The Indian bowlers would have got Travis Head if the crowd had launched a Mexican wave or come up with some soul-stirring chant. Mumbai played a role in getting Kane Williamson in the semi-final when he seemed to be running away with the match in the company of Daryl Mitchel. So why can’t Ahmedabad do the same?
Delusional and naive
It’s both delusional and naive to assume that a player in the middle of a World Cup final needs extra motivation to play out of their skin. Had that been the case, Cummins and his boys wouldn’t have played a flawless game in front of an intimidating crowd. Fans do add to the atmospherics but their role in inspiring players is grossly overrated, if not wholly untrue. There has been no scientific study on the correlation between the decibel levels inside a stadium and sportpersons giving peak performances.

Cricketers relish the attention but do they depend on fan support to do well? Not really. The greats of the game – from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar to MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli – have spoken about being in the zone, cutting the clutter when on the 22 yards. The pandemic time closed-door games also showed that players can dig deep even in crowd-less stadiums. In what many say was his best show ever, Rafael Nadal, in the 2020 French Open, breezed past an in-form Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 at an empty Roland Garros.

The best-ever basketball game is said to be the intra-Dream Team game before the 1992 Olympics inside an empty obscure Monte Carlo gymnasium. The intense training time face-off between teams led Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan was called the ‘Greatest game that no one saw’ Sports Illustrated.
India didn’t lose the final because of an underwhelming Ahmedabad crowd but a case can be made against the overeager team management obsessed with pitch preparation. However, the world’s largest stadium can’t go scot-free. Video clips of objectionable chants during the league game against Pakan had gone viral. The chants were weaponised to intimidate the opponents.
It’s said, you often regret your speech but never your silence. Ahmedabad would beg to differ.
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