Virender Sehwag has called for providing free tickets to children for non-India games at the World Cup.

The opening fixture of the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup between England and New Zealand started in front of empty stands at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad today (October 5).

The sparsely-attended start to the World Cup from the fans’ point of view caught the attention of the wider cricket public as people pointed out how the BCCI and ICC’s mismanagement of the scheduling and ticketing process led to the tournament starting off in front of largely empty stands.

The Narendra Modi Stadium is the largest cricket stadium in the world with a capacity of around 132,000, which makes it look relatively empty even if there’s a decent crowd in. The fact that the tournament opener is being played on a weekday without the participation of the host team has also played a role in the poor attendance for the match.

Virender Sehwag joined in on the discussion surrounding the empty stands and suggested providing free tickets to school and college-going children for games not involving India at the World Cup.

“Hopefully after office hours, there should be more people coming in. But for games not featuring Bharat (India), there should be free tickets for school and college children,” said Sehwag. “With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup game and players get to play in front of a full stadium.”

Hopefully after office hours, there should be more people coming in. But for games not featuring Bharat, there should be free tickets for school and college children. With the fading interest in 50 over game, it will definitely help that youngsters get to experience a World Cup…

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 5, 2023

A few days back, the new MCC President Mark Nicholas said that MCC “strongly believes” that ODIs should be restricted only to World Cups. “We think it’s difficult bilaterally now to justify them. They’re not filling grounds in a lot of countries,” said Nicholas. Sehwag’s suggestion might be one way to tackle that.

To bet on the World Cup with our Match Centre Partners bet365 head here.