HYDERABAD: Ahead of the much awaited final match of the Indian Premier League between Rising Pune Supergiant and Mumbai Indians to be held in Hyderabad on Sunday, the cricket fans were a disappointed lot.
The tickets which were on sale online on the morning of May 18 were sold out the same evening itself, leaving most of the fans fretting and fuming with no tickets. Apart from that, retail outlets that were authorised to sell some tickets, had also ‘sold out’ all the tickets.
“It is surprising that tickets at all other venues were available online very easily but not in Hyderabad. I badly wanted to watch a game in Hyderabad but have not been lucky enough to get a ticket,” R Srinivas, a fan, said.
Express tracked down one black marketeer, associated with the sport, who works at an academy in the city. By his own admission, he has over 60 tickets for the finals and is selling them at three times high than the original price. “I have some 60 tickets right now. We are selling Rs 1,200 ticket for Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,500 for Rs 2,500. Even if I don’t sell all the tickets, I will earn a decent profit out of it,” he said.
Irony as it may be called, none of the matches held in Hyderabad witnessed full attendance despite all the tickets being sold out much ahead of schedule.
Though the full house capacity of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (RGIS) is 36,000, the highest attendance that the stadium has seen this season stands roughly at 32,000 during Sunrisers Hyderabad’s match against Pune.
Cut to April 4, the eve of the inaugural match of the IPL between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, held here, special operations team (SOT) sleuths of Rachakonda police busted a gang of 17 members selling tickets in black outside the stadium.