A quick look and it’s impossible to not marvel at the old-world charm which the iconic Wankhede Stadium has managed to maintain even after years of hosting domestic, international and IPL fixtures. The corridors, filled with temporary food joints for the World Cup and the old-school staircases leading to the stands only add to the flavour and are very different from the new venues in the country.
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It would have been extremely difficult to not get tempted by the modern touch but Wankhede, with the renovations for the World Cup, has not only ventured into that territory but also retained the old-world charm. The corridors are nice and clean, seats are in proper order for the spectators, washrooms are spick and span and then there is free coke and popcorn. Leading the show at the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has been its dynamic President Amol Kale who, with proper planning and non-stop work, has managed to dish out a comfortable experience for spectators.
In an exclusive conversation with CricketNext, Kale threw light on the challenges, how planning started well in advance, thought behind free popcorn and coke, and more. Edited Excerpts:
How has it been hosting the World Cup at Wankhede? Maintaining the old-world charm of the venue and also giving it a modern touch.
Wankhede goes with cricket and cricket goes with Wankhede. Wankhede is the only stadium where you have seen that crowd has turned up for the non-India matches. Wankhede was almost full for all the matches so it was a great experience to host the World Cup and to be a part of it.
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How early did you start preparing for the World Cup? Like the Sachin Tendulkar statue was also planned well in advance and you unveiled it before India’s game vs Sri Lanka.
Of course, the World Cup was already there in the mind and as we all know the preparations at all levels started much before. Similarly, we at the Mumbai Cricket Association had also planned how to go ahead with the World Cup preparations. Fortunately, my team could achieve all that we have done and today, all of us are seeing a great experience at Wankhede. On the eve of the India vs Sri Lanka match, we inaugurated the Sachin Tendulkar statue that is standing tall in the stadium. Whatever we have done is a great achievement and my team has done work 24/7.
Were there any challenges along the way?
Of course, it was challenging but all of us know that if we do proper planning, it leads to successful execution… planning is a must. Then you need a team of dedicated workers who work on towards the execution of the same and I was fortunate enough to have my team achieve whatever we planned. We could achieve that if we could execute that planning. Everybody does planning but execution is the most difficult part of it at MCA my entire team stood with me and today we could achieve and execute whatever we planned.
The idea of free popcorn and coke has been super hit. From where did you get inspiration for that? Was it from your experience of watching a game outside India?
I have not seen any association doing that even outside of India. It came to my mind that everybody comes here for a 50-over match. 50-50 so 100 overs sitting in a stadium it’s a difficult thing nowadays. We are used to more like 20-20 so when a common man, basically, comes for a match to view a 100-over game just as a token of appreciation for his/her presence at Wankhede, I thought that we should do that. My entire team supported that it was a difficult task to distribute 30,000 odd popcorn and coke to everyone at the stadium but fortunately, we could do that smoothly and you must have seen that for all three-four matches there have been no incidents. Everything is going on very smoothly and tomorrow as well, it will be done the same way.
More than 30,000 will be in attendance but how much star power is expected in the stands?
Of course, some big names will come tomorrow (Wednesday) but I would not be in a position to diverge the name now because of certain security reasons and everything but for sure there will be some good names.
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