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Tariq Engineer

Mumbai March 23 It seems most Indian cricket fans prefer to sleep rather than watch cricket. According to all-India data provided by ratings agency aMap, the television rating points (TRPs) for India's match against Bermuda on March 19 dropped from 13.5 — the high for the match — to 4.24 within a few minutes of India's record breaking innings of 413-5 ending.

Viewership did spike once the second innings started, but ratings peaked around 11:30 pm at 6.87. That's an almost 50 per cent drop from the high for the first innings.

Television rating points are a function of the number of people who watch the match and the time they spend watching. The rating points encompass the total viewership for the SET Max-Doordarshan-SAB TV triumvirate that is showing the matches.

India's opening match — the dramatic loss to Bangladesh on March 17 — showed a similar pattern to the Bermuda match. The highest TRP of 13 was registered around 10:30 pm, just before the first innings ended. Ratings then dropped to 4.8 at the start of Extraaa Innings, before climbing back up to 7.06, again around 11:30 pm.

And even ardent fans turn into Cinderella at midnight, which is when viewership ratings begin their steady decline through the night. Only the most passionate fan was still up at 2 am, as a TRP of 2.59 during the Bangladesh match indicates.

Average TRPs for the two matches were 5.88 and 5.51 respectively. In terms of number of people, 4.33 crore viewers (27.12 per cent of total TV viewers in the country) watched some part of the India-Bermuda game, while 4.67 crore viewers watched India play Bangladesh (29.23 per cent). Expect Friday night's India-Sri Lanka game to top those numbers though, since India is playing for its survival in the World Cup.

The least watched game so far, at least among cable and satellite homes, was Ireland-Pakistan, which drew 1.18 per cent of viewers. Of course, that match was played at the same time as India-Bangladesh. It seems that so long as the Indian cricket fan stays awake, he or she will be watching India.

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