FANS have slammed the “criminal” attendance for England’s Cricket World Cup opener against New Zealand.

The action got underway today as Ben Stokes and Co faced New Zealand, in a repeat of the 2019 final, in the opener.

Our stars go into the game in fine form after winning their warm-up match by four wickets against Bangladesh.

The England squad’s stunning Wags are out in force in India to cheer on our cricketers.

However, as fans tuned in to watch the drama unfold today, they soon realised that not many others were in attendance.

Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is hosting the game and its 132,000-capacity makes it the largest cricket venue on the planet.

But there were a lot more empty seats than spectators on view for England’s first game against New Zealand.

And fans quickly took to social media to slam the attendance.

“I thought India was supposed to be a cricket loving country,” asked one. “England and New Zealand are last WC finalists. This crowd attendance is criminal.”

Another viewer commented: “It’s painful to say but India have let the cricket world down! No opening ceremony and an empty stadium for the first game of the #ICCCricketWorldCup.”

Along with a crying with laughter emoji, another comment said: “First game of the cricket World Cup, repeat of the final last time and it’s basically in an empty stadium.”

The criticism continued with a fellow fan saying: “Opening game of the cricket World Cup & the stadium is near on empty! What a shambles!”

And another even compared it to the horrible memory of the coronavirus pandemic.

They said: “First game of the cricket world cup and the ground is virtually empty like COVID times madness.”