A cricket fan from Western Australia is on an IPL tour of India.
Stuart Pether, 56, landed a week ago and has watched matches in Chennai, Jaipur and Lucknow. He watched two matches at the Eden Gardens — on Sunday and Tuesday. A match each at Mullanpur in Punjab, Delhi and Lucknow are awaiting him before he leaves next Sunday.
Pether, a mining engineer, compares his experience at Eden and some other Indian grounds with that in the venues in Australia. The italicised portions have been added for context by this newspaper.
Atmosphere
I have watched matches at the Waca stadium and the new Optus Stadium in Perth, and the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
(Until recently, all international cricket in Perth was played at the Waca — the name derived from the abbreviation of Western Australian Cricket Association and known for arguably the quickest and bounciest wickets on the planet. Top-tier international games and Big Bash league games are now played at Optus Stadium.)
The atmosphere at the grounds will often depend on who is playing. But Optus at a (Perth) Scorchers (the home team) game is pretty high energy.
I have been to Chennai, Jaipur, Lucknow and now Kolkata. For crowd support and atmosphere, it is pretty hard to beat Chennai. The noise and support of the fans were next level and it was insane when M.S. Dhoni just walked into the game. I can’t imagine how it would be if he hit the winning runs or a few 6es like he did in Mumbai on Sunday.
If Optus is the benchmark crowd support and atmosphere as a 10, (they call Optus the Furnace as the Western Australia crowds are parochial and usually has a one-sided supporter base), Chennai would be a 15. The other crowds were all very similar, probably with Jaipur and Kolkata being very similar on a 12 and Lucknow similar to a Scorchers game on a 10.
Facilities
The best stadium (that he has been to in India so far) has most definitely been Ekana (in Lucknow, home of the Super Giants and rechristened in 2018 after Atal Bihari Vajpayee).
The stadium that needs most improvement is definitely Jaipur. The seats were old and crumbling. All of the food and drink facilities were actually outside the ground. They required fans to leave and re-enter via the security checks which was very frustrating.
There were also a number of “poor-vision points” at the back of the section I was in. This resulted in many fans coming standing in the aisles or sitting in other people’s seats, causing a lot of conflict during the game. I would give Jaipur a 2 in 10. It is similar to how the Waca was 50 years ago.
I would put Kolkata and Chennai on a similar standard.
Facilities are very basic compared to Australian standards, particularly around the quality of the food and beverages, access to these areas and toilets and other facilities.
Optus has a number of open bar areas where people can congregate and access the food and drinks joints. They can sit at tables to eat. The access to the seating area is very wide and spacious, which is part of the stadium design.
At Optus, you can walk around the full ground within the stadium structure via a circular 15m wide corridor, which also has multiple access points to the toilets and food and drink facilities.
At Chennai, getting to the limited food and drink area resulted in overcrowding, which at some point was almost leading to a stampede-like situation.
At Eden, the road to the food and beverage stalls was via a single set of stairs.
The quality of the food is far superior in Australia. A wide range of hot food is available along with soft drinks and other alcoholic drinks (I understand that is different in India).
Both Peth and Melbourne have very good quality public transport at the stadiums. There is very limited car parking facility at Optus and free public transport is included in the game ticket. I can easily get away from the game within 15 minutes via a bus service. I have consciously booked hotel rooms within a short walk from the grounds in India so I am not in trouble getting home at 11pm.
What stands out
Having said all of this, this is what also makes coming and experiencing India and Indian cricket special. The frenzy and festive atmosphere are unparalleled.
If it was just like home, it would not have that attraction and sense of adventure. You cannot buy cheap counterfeit M.S. Dhoni or Rinku Singh shirts for Rs 250 outside Australian grounds. I would love to come back next year, hopefully with a small group of friends and IPL fans.