ICC World Cup: For India matches, ‘sold out’ tags confuse ticket seekers again

Ticket sales for India matches for the upcoming ICC World Cup, both for events and warm-ups, began on the evening of 29 August with ‘sold out’ tags appearing for all matches within minutes. However, it’s not really a hopeless situation for the Indian cricket fans as BookMyShow — the official ticketing platform for the showpiece — will organise bigger sales from Thursday, 31 August. 

The ‘sold out’ tags, along with a lack of clarity on the ticketing portal’s website, created confusion all around, with fans questioning how tickets for bigger grounds, such as Ahmedabad or Kolkata, could sell out within minutes of the 6.00 pm IST start.

‘’There were only a limited number of tickets, say around 10 per cent of  each venue’s capacity, which were thrown open as an early bird offer through BookMyShow for users of Mastercard, the official partners of ICC. Actual sales begin from Thursday,’’ one of the ICC accredited ticketing agents told National Herald. 

Come Thursday, and general tickets for India matches in Chennai, Delhi and Pune will be up for sale on the official portal, those for India matches in Dharamsala, Lucknow and Mumbai will go online on 1 September, for Bengaluru and Kolkata on 2 September, and Ahmedabad on 3 September. Ticket sales for the semi-final and final will go online on 15 September. 

A majority of cricket fans were left disappointed after logging in at kick-off time for tickets on Tuesday. ‘’When I logged in, the first instruction for getting into the queue was ‘due to high demand, you are waiting in line till your chance comes.’ The sold out stickers appeared immediately after that,’’ said Trisha Banerjee, a Kolkata-based accounts professional. 

It remains to be seen whether a frustrating experience akin to that of fans buying tickets for non-India matches, awaits buyers on Thursday. Ticket sales for non-India matches for Mastercard users opened on 24 August, and for all buyers on 25 August, but fans were in for a shock trying to buy one. 

Sanika Sawant, a Mumbai-based cricket fan, was trying to buy tickets for the England–South Africa match on 21 October at Wankhede Stadium, but didn’t succeed. 

“I logged in around 7.45 pm since the sale was to start from 8 pm. But till 8.30 pm, it was showing 'coming soon'. After that, the sale started and I was able to get in. But they only showed tickets for the Sunil Gavaskar stand and when I tried to book, there were no seats available. I refreshed the page and it showed 'sold out’,” Sawant was quoted as saying by IANS.