BCCI set to release 14,000 tickets for India vs Pakistan match

Mumbai, Oct 7 (IANS) The Board of Cricket Council India (BCCI) is set to release 14,000 tickets for the India vs Pakistan League match to be held in Ahmedabad on October 14.

The sale of tickets for the match will commence from 12 PM IST onwards on October 8, 2023.

The absence of spectators in the opening games of the 2023 World Cup drew speculation over crowd presence in the stadium. On Thursday there was little interest in the World Cup 2023 opening between the reigning champions England, and the winners of the 2019 tournament, New Zealand.

As Jos Buttler and Tom Latham's teams took the pitch in the afternoon, the Narendra Modi Stadium was mostly empty.

This is not the first time that the BCCI has faced in the run-up to the World Cup. BCCI changed dates for as many as 9 matches right ahead of the tournament, adding to mass confusion.

Around hundred days before the event's commencement, on June 27, the 2023 World Cup schedule was first made public, as compared to the 2018 World Cup, where the fixtures were made public more than a year in advance.

The schedule then went through additional adjustments, as many hosting associations expressed reservations over a clash of the matches with other important events in the city.

The fixture list was finally amended on August 9, about a month and a half after the first announcement, and with less than two months until the first game of the tournament, scheduled for October 5.

Then came the announcement that August 24 will see Mastercard holders access tickets for non-India games, and a day later, to the general public. August 29 to September 3 was the time where fans – both with and without Mastercard – could aim for buying India match tickets.

On September 6, the BCCI announced that further 400,000 tickets will be up for sale for all matches, something which hadn’t been mentioned previously. It also added that fans will be notified of the further sale of tickets in the next phase in due course, with no clarity on the dates around it, adding more fuel to the planning not being great for the World Cup.

Bookmyshow was also made to release extra tickets for the tournament after the website crashed initially and many complained of massive queues for online tickets.

All the eyes will be on Ahmedabad as India takes on Pakistan on October 14. The two sides have met seven times in the ODI World Cup with the Men in Blue coming out on top all seven times.

Rohit Sharma's men will be out to clinch the third World Cup title for India, while Pakistan will be eying their first World Cup triumph since 1992.