THE TELEPHONES have been ringingoff the hook, and the inbox filling up with hate mails at the headquarters of the Indian cricket board in Mumbai. For a while now, anxious tour operators and fans have been calling to ask when tickets would be made available for the T20 World Cup starting March 8.With just 10 days left for the teams to start arriving and the warm-up to start, there is no clarity on tickets forfans, who also have to book hotels and organise transport in India for ICC’s second-biggest event after the 50-over World Cup.Last heard, the ticket sales will finally go online on Monday, but even this hasn’t been advertised to fans. Then there are those who say the date could be pushed further.For an event of this magnitude, this is not the ideal promotion but it was chaos over the eligibility of Delhi as a venue that worsened the situation. This uncertainty has thrown tour operators and fans off guard as tours are usually planned as a package comprising tickets, hotels and possibly a mini-holiday during a break in matches.“This is not a usual delay, this is an alarming delay,” said a BCCI source. “Fans, operators and sponsors call us daily but we tell them that it will get sorted out soon. Many of our officials have been receiving hate mails from fans across India and abroad,” the source said.Although the World T20 is an ICC event, it is the host — BCCI, in this case — that takes care of ticketing and pricing. But the dilly-dallying over the venue has meant that the board is in no position to start the sale.“To start the sale of tickets isn’t a simple switch-on process. It takes time. We need to fix pricing, pay entertainment tax, get clearances. Allthis takes time. This is unprecedented and it’s all because of Delhi,” said the source.
Read more:http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/10-days-before-teams-land-for-world-cup-t20-tickets-on-hold/
Read more:http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/10-days-before-teams-land-for-world-cup-t20-tickets-on-hold/
