World T20: Indo-Pak Match Tickets Priced Rs 500 being Black Marketed for Rs 3000.

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Scene outside the Mohammedan Sporting ground on Thursday .Image Source: Xtra Time

Kolkata: If you are interested in going to watch the mouth watering India Pakistan clash at Eden Gardens on Saturday and is not lucky enough to get a ticket yet , then you are in for paying a huge price for the prized ticket.

Just 48 hours before the epic Indo-Pak clash in ICC World T20 Super 10 clash, cricket fever is sweeping the city. The demand for Saturday’s match tickets reached a crescendo. With no public sale of tickets for Saturday’s mouth watering clash, there was a huge crisis for the tickets.

The picture in front of the famous banyan tree near Eden Gardens which wore a deserted look in the morning was crowded with conspicuous people in the evening before the Sri Lanka – Afghanistan match. The picture was the same in front of Mohammedan Sporting club ground.

“Dada, duto ticket hobe? (Brother, can I have two tickets for the game)” is the common question that is doing the rounds in the maidan area. And more often than not the person questioning is leaving with a glum face.

Tickets priced at Rs 500 were black marketed for Rs 3000, while the price for Rs 1000 and Rs 1500 rose to Rs 4000 and Rs 5000 respectively. The amount is only going to soar as we come closer to the commencement of the match.

There were small groups in front of the CAB officials’ room in the club house with everyone looking for an opportunity to put forward a request to the man seated inside for the prized ticket for Saturday.

Invariably most of the officials’ number was busy throughout the day or was switched off. Few among them have stopped coming to the association since yesterday to avoid being requested for the tickets.

CAB president Sourav Ganguly too is not left alone as he has been getting constant calls from other parts of the country as well as from his closed ones. According to sources, the President himself is handling the distribution of few priced tickets left.

Next man being sought after is Avishek Dalmiya. Young Avishek who has been in the hot seat of Joint Secretary few months back is feeling the pressure of handling the requests of ticket. This was something that was mastered by his late father Jagmohan Dalmiya.

Other office bearers like the other Jt. secy. Subir Ganguly, Treasurer Biswarup Dey are also having a tough time trying to keep the requests.

The reason for such demand is quite obvious. It was for the first time that there were no counter sales for an international match at Eden Gardens. A giant yellow banner which was fixed outside the Mohammedan Sporting tent says, “No tickets will be sold from the corner”.

An online lottery system was in place to determine who gets to buy tickets to the Indo-Pak clash on Saturday.

Fans were required to register with the official ticketing agency of the tournament, BookMyShow.com, and apply for a maximum of two tickets. Once the registration window closes, applications are screened – an email ID and a mobile number are mandatory – and entered in an automated online lottery supervised by an auditing firm. The lucky ones are intimated by email and/or text so that they can make their purchases. For the India-Pakistan Super 10 match, registrations opened last Saturday and continued till Sunday.

There were only 10,000 tickets for sale this time after providing the International Cricket Council, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the CAB and its members and clubs their respective quotas.

The last time the city had seen such a craze for tickets was for the IPL match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Pune Warriors India, captained by current CAB boss Sourav Ganguly, on May 5, 2012.

Meanwhile, there was a chaos which occurred outside Eden Gardens today during Pakistan training. Some of the life members of the CAB were denied match tickets by the association as the renewal date of 15th March had already passed. CAB officials already put on a notice regarding this issue but the CAB life members overlooked it which is absolutely their fault.