Pakistan’s premier and Flagship event, the Pakistan Super League, is off and running, and the tournament has become interesting. The teams are fighting for the Orion trophy this year. Talking about the league its main core are fans of cricket who intensify the game as they support their city team. To back their team and to watch their favourite players, fans fill up the stadiums up to the brink.
The Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan stadiums had full houses when their teams played. Alas! The same can’t be said about the Karachi Arena. The ground void of crowd, looked almost haunted. The empty stadium of Karachi has raised many questions. Here’s why the people of the largest city don’t go to watch cricket.
Empty Stadium in Karachi: Do people lack Interest?
Now the question arises whether the people of Karachi have lost interest in the game itself as seen through the empty stadium in Karachi and for a flagship premier event of Pakistan. This is not a good advertisement for the people viewing it from the outside world. The people of Karachi love cricket and, they want cricket happening in the country and the city.
Boycotting PSL for the sake of Palestine
The main sponsor of PSL is KFC, a brand whose parent company is involved in supporting ventures in Israel the culprit behind the destruction of Palestine. Israel has been bombing them for nearly 76 years. The recent onslaught has caused martyrdom of more than 30,000 people, the majority of whom are women and children. This created a vibe of the boycott of every Israeli-owned product in Pakistan and throughout the world to ebb the brutality.
When KFC was announced as the official sponsor of the Pakistan Super League it created a lot of buzz in the Pakistan cricket fans fraternity. Even though many vocalized their concerns on social media, the event saw many taking to the stadiums in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. But the stadium in Karachi remained mostly empty. Because boycotting isn’t the only reason why the people of Karachi have abandoned the game
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Mismanagement and Lack of Proper Facilities
Another reason why the people of the City of Lights have stopped going to the ground is mismanagement and lack of proper facilities in and outside of the stadium. The fans need to be provided with the proper travelling route, so the supporters coming to support them don’t have to do a lot of hassle to enter the stadium. They need to be provided with proper spaces for parking their vehicles. Recently on a TV show on A Sports, Wasim Akram expressed his annoyance at the traffic situation near the stadium, after the cricketer was stuck in traffic for 90 minutes. He argued that perhaps this is the reason why fans avoid watching the match Live.
Apart from these major problems, the debilitating condition of stadium seats, washrooms and improperly dedicated prayer areas is a source of discomfort for fans. Extremely stringent security measures cause cricket followers to wait for hours in line and to top it off, the security personnel are often involved in scuffling with people coming to watch the match. The disappointed fans prefer watching the game in the comforts of their homes.
Possible solutions:
PCB must find some better solution they must facilitate fans and they must eradicate the barriers that are creating hurdles for the people to come to the stadium. It is not only damaging the repute of Pakistan’s flagship league and being the biggest city of Pakistan not being able to fill the stadium is a worrying sign for PCB. The National Bank Stadium needs a full revamp with the main focus on fans’ comfort and clear viewing of the game. If conditions are not improved, removing matches from Karachi would be inevitable.
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