Will the WI Tour evoke interest?

It is interesting to see if the India’s tour of WI will evoke the interest level of audience? There are a lot of setbacks to the tournament.

WI is already a depleted side limping at 8^th or 9^th on the ICC rankings. To top it, the issue with WICB has led to the omission of Chris Gayle for the one off T20 and the first two ODI matches the least.  Except for the T20 and 3^rd ODI the remaining games are played on weekdays. Mind you majority of the viewership comes from India and a good half of the game is played late in the night of IST. Adding salt to the injury the star attractions of Indian cricket Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh will be missing the edition. This is likely to bring down the viewers enthusiasm to stay awake to witness India bat second in the innings. That goes without saying only a mad cricket lover can stay awake to eyewitness how India defends the target.

Even the national dailies will have to wait one more day to publish the result, scorecard and a match report. So, majority of the Indian public has to depend on the morning news or cricinfo for the result of the game. Then wait for a day after the game to catch the action on the highlights.

For the Test Matches watching the highlights would be even more challenging as most office goers would find it hard in the morning hours to see even a glimpse of it. While it will be too early to be back from work to watch the highlights before the start of the day's play.

With so many setbacks, even broadcasters would not find overwhelming sponsors for this tour. For once if you decide to watch the whole game live on TV, you should not be bothered by frequent ads.

Even if you miss it, don’t worry!!! CCL will present you “AANKHON DEKHA HAAL” with expert opinion and analysis. Ok. Ok. I know what is running in your mind. Got a little excited!!! Sorry about that.

But one thing is a guarantee. This should be a cracker of a series and India should play out of its skin to make history.

Bottom Line: The Bench Warmers get to play. You will soon know how good they are.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover