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03-10-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Attending a World Cup is on the wish list of every cricket fan. The opportunity comes once every four years, the wait is long and arduous, it might be expensive but in the end, it’s worth it.
Many fans in India had hoped to attend the Cricket World Cup on home soil, but the organizers’ delay in announcing the final schedule and a chaotic ticketing process have forced many to give up on their dream.
The International Cricket Council, cricket’s global governing body and organisers of the World Cup, released the fixtures on June 27; just 100 days before the start of the tournament on October 5, when defending champions England take on New Zealand in the opener in Ahmedabad.
The delayed announcement was met with backlash from fans as schedules for the last two ODI World Cups in Australia and New Zealand (2015) and England and Wales (2019) were put out more than 12 months in advance.
Then on August 9, less than two months out from the start of the tournament, the 2023 World Cup organizers made things even more complicated for fans by releasing a revised schedule.
The dates or start times were changed for nine matches, including the highly-anticipated India vs Pakistan fixture in Ahmedabad, which was moved to October 14 from its original date of October 15. The changes to the schedule were reportedly over security concerns and requests from participating countries.
Match tickets for the general public went on sale in a staggered manner only from August 25, a mere 41 days before the opening match. And the process to book tickets was far from hassle-free – fans had to first register to be able to book tickets and then wait for hours before they could have a chance to buy them and for many, the chance never came.
Mayank Batra, a cricket fan in New Delhi, had booked a flight for October 15 to attend the India-Pakistan match in Ahmedabad but was forced to cancel it after the fixture was rescheduled.
The 28-year-old made a fresh travel booking for the new date, but even that was in vain as he failed to get his hands on the match tickets.
“There has been a lot of mismanagement. Several people had already booked their travel and couldn’t get hold of the match tickets,” Batra told Al Jazeera.
Batra said his initial round-trip flight tickets cost him 30,000 Indian rupees ($360), but prices went up after the match was rescheduled, with one-way tickets costing 23,000 Indian rupees ($277).
