As ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 heads to a dramatic crescendo with this week’s Semi-Finals and Final, tournament organisers have revealed that attendance has now broken the 400,000 threshold.
Figures following the conclusion of the Super 8s phase of the competition last Saturday – and inclusive of 10,300 persons at the Opening Ceremony – indicate that over 403,000 fans have taken in the sporting spectacle so far; with an average 8,500 supporters per match.
The highest match attendance was a massive 22,452 as fans from all across the world packed into Kensington Oval, Barbados, for the final Super 8 game – featuring England and the West Indies – to give retiring Windies captain and world batting record-holder, Brian Lara, a princely farewell after 17 years on the international stage.
England’s decisive Super match-up against South Africa – also at Kensington – drew the second-highest attendance with 17,013 supporters passing through the turnstiles while the opening Group Stage match – West Indies versus Pakistan – had the third-highest attendance of 16,574. Meanwhile, corrected statistics show that the India-Sri Lanka Group Stage game – initially reported to have been watched by more than 16,000 spectators – in fact had 10,660 fans in attendance.
More than 570,000 tickets have so far been sold and distributed for the Event which began on March 13 and which ends this Saturday (April 28) following the Semi-Finals in Jamaica (tomorrow) and Saint Lucia (Wednesday).
“The Caribbean is well on track to recording the highest Ticketing revenue for a Cricket World Cup – beating the US$22 million in England in 1999 and US$10 million in South Africa in 2003. This is a significant achievement for a cluster of small developing nations whose combined population is a fraction of that of countries which have customarily hosted the Cricket World Cup,” noted ICC CWC 2007 Managing Director & CEO, Chris Dehring.
“People around the world have been spellbound by the images of this Event which are being shown across the globe and, as we have moved closer and closer to the business end of the Event, the momentum has increased tremendously.
“It’s down to the best four teams now – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka – and the eyes of every cricket fan will be on the Caribbean as the region brings this Event to a fitting climax.”
