Here I am, sitting in Finland watching the opening game of the 2023 Cricket World Cup being played in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India.
Looking at a sparsely populated stadium and an opening ceremony which was totally lack lustre, for the starting point of an event of this magnitude, which takes place only once in 4 years, it is difficult to believe that Indians are cricket loving and also whether the Indian Cticket Board has any competence to host an international event of this significance.
The opening ceremony was Sachin Tendulkar walking out with two Quatari Air Hostesses to place the World Cup on a stand.
End of opening ceremony.
Shots of the stadium which is supposed to hold 110000 people was hardly a third full!
Does that speak of a country which loves cricket or one which just loves itself and the money which may be lining the pockets of the administrators?
As I watch the cricket on one of six 20 streams available to me, the streams are breaking up every two minutes!
The match goes on but I am sorely disappointed with the Indian organisers and the Indian cricket fans who are just partisans who love nothing but themselves.
I return to theWorld Cup which was held in 1987 and was run by my family owned company, MRF Ltd.
It went like clockwork and there was not a single hitch.
MRF took on the task by telling the Indian Organisers that that would not accept any interference in the organisation. It was tun totally professionally with my two cousins, Vinoo and the late Ravi Mammen, and my good friend S. Rama Ratnam, himself an ardent sports lover, putting together a team of professionals to run the event.
In 1989 I attended a International Semiconductor Conference in Delhi. When I went to the registration counter with my Professor, the lady asked my local address. I told her we were staying at the MRF Guest House in Sundernagar. On hearing this she asked for my relationship to MRF. When I told her of my roots, she did not take any money to register us and we were given pride of place at the conference, much to the amazement of my colleague!
She told me that MRF had brought great credit to our country in the way they had organised the World Cup!
Shame today on my country.
I am ashamed on the organisation of the present Wotld Cup, an insult to sports loving cricket fans around the world. .
