With the ticket window still open and sales coming in slowly, the much-anticipated India-Pakistan match in the T20 Asia Cup is experiencing an unusual decline in ticket sales, even though the match is less than three days away.
The organizers have not noticed a notable increase in sales, with the figures still being slow before the game, even though they used a single ticket format to make buying easier. India and Pakistan will face off on September 14.
The lack of star Indian players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from the game’s shortest format following India’s victory over South Africa in the T20 World Cup final last year, may be the cause of the decreased ticket sales, according to an Emirates Cricket official.
“We are surprised that flow of sales for India vs Pakistan is much low. Till the time we sold out with lower stands only but the upper and top tear stands are still on sale. In the Champions Trophy for the same match we had sale twice in a single day. We had opened ticket window at 2 pm and at 4 pm and were sold in just less than 4 minutes! But this time craze is very dull, it might be it’s because of absence of Rohit and Virat,” an official from Emirates Cricket told ANI.
Disappointed with ticket sales, fans have flocked to social media, with some urging that single-match tickets be made available closer to the match date. Premium seats are still unaffordable, though, costing more than Rs 2.5 lakh for two.
India defeated the United Arab Emirates by nine wickets on Wednesday in their Asia Cup opening match.
On September 19, India will meet Oman in Abu Dhabi in their last group stage match. The top two teams from each group advance to the Super 4 round of the event following the group round.
In the event that India wins Group A, Dubai will host all of their Super 4 games. In the event that India comes in second, Abu Dhabi will host one of their Super 4 matches, while Dubai will host the other two. September 20–26 is when the Super 4 stage will take place.
The final, which is set for September 28, will take place in Dubai.
