HCA wakes up at last, tickets for Ind-Aus match to go on sale from Sept 22 at Gymkhana

Hyderabad: Finally it took thousands of cricket fans to jolt the HCA from slumber and announce sale of offline tickets from today. Earlier, the confusion over sale of tickets for the India-Australia T20 cricket match on September 25 (Sunday) left thousands of cricket-starved fans cursing the cricket body for keeping them in the dark. Though […]

Hyderabad: Finally it took thousands of cricket fans to jolt the HCA from slumber and announce sale of offline tickets from today.

Earlier, the confusion over sale of tickets for the India-Australia T20 cricket match on September 25 (Sunday) left thousands of cricket-starved fans cursing the cricket body for keeping them in the dark. Though the first round of tickets were sold on Paytm with a majority of fans complaining about glitches, there was no clarity on the sale of offline tickets till late Wednesday night. Now the tickets will be sold at Gymkhana Cricket Grounds from 10 am to 5 pm.

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Deprived of top-class cricket, fans from the twin cities and even neighbouring districts have been thronging the Gymkhana Grounds in the fond hope of getting a ticket since the last few days only to return home disappointed as there was no clarity whether – as in the past – tickets will be sold from the counters at Gymkhana.

The scenes at the Gymkhana Grounds on Wednesday presented a grim picture of how the Hyderabad Cricket Association was running the show. Many fans, who have been queuing up at the ground since the last two days for tickets, are lashing out at the association for not providing information. Whoever came to the ground had to return empty-handed with offline ticket sales not beginning.

But what made them furious is the lack of communication from the officials. “I have been trying to buy a ticket since they released it online on September 15. While they were sold out in no time, I came here in a hope to buy tickets. But they are not yet selling the tickets. There is no notice board or anyone here to tell us when they will sell,” rued Kiran, an IT employee.

Prasad, another IT employee who managed to get tickets online, was in the queue to redeem his online ticket. “I bought the tickets after a lot of trouble. I got a message from friends in a whatsapp group saying that we can redeem the ticket at Gymkhana. So, I came here yesterday (Tuesday) and today. But they are yet to give us the tickets. There is no information on when they will redeem the tickets,” he fumed.

The queue began as early as 6 am at Gymkhana and the crowd kept increasing with each passing hour. Anticipating traffic congestion in the area, the police reached the place to disperse the crowd, who were shouting slogans against the HCA. However, many barged into the HCA office and on to the cricket ground waiting for an answer.

The Paytm website, however, displayed information that the tickets will be available soon. “We have almost exhausted the quota for online inventory for September 15. Please stay tuned for further updates. Limited tickets in Lot 2 Coming Soon,” the website says. It also said that the tickets can be redeemed at Gymkhana from September 22 to 25.