Sunday's novel presentation added up to a considerable loss to the cinema owner. Payment to SITI Cable, advertising costs, projector and 4500 watt sound equipment rental charges and cost of wiring added up to an outlay of about Rs 50,000 -- another cost was the cancellation of the three film shows in order to telecast the match. The theatre had hired a special projector which directly received the satellite signal for clear and effective projection. Tickets were priced at Rs 75 for Upper stall and Rs 150 for Balcony.

Sharma told Newsline that the cinema wanted to go ahead with scheduled telecasts of India vs Sri Lanka and England vs India on the 26th and 29th of this month respectively. "Initial cost was more and it would cost less in the coming matches," he pointed out. "We would like to telecast all the World Cup matches but that will depend on public demand."

"Watching the match on the big screen was an enthralling experience and I'm glad I came here to see it," grinned Shiv, as he came out of the theatre. Dr Hemraj diagnosed the reason for the thin audience as "waning interest after India dropped the previous two matches". Panchkula busiessman Rahul Bhutani agreed: "Response would have been better if India had been playing Sri Lanka or Pakistan." Theatre manager Kashmiri Lal Sharma noted that when another local theatre had tried to show the final of the Football World Cup the projection system had failed and the audience had left the hall disappointed. "Perhaps people had got a bad impression from that earlier experiment," he reasoned. Heavy rain also conspired to keep cricket fans plunked in front of their TV sets at home.