Hundreds of Indian cricket fans faced frustrating delays on Sunday in collecting tickets booked over the internet on the eve of the third limited-overs international between Pakistan and India in the eastern city of Lahore.
”It’s 8pm and so far I have not got my ticket that I booked on the internet on February 4,” said Amrit Sethi, a 61-year-old eye surgeon from India’s southern Punjab province who said he had been standing in line for over two hours to pick up his ticket.
Sethi was among hundreds of Indian cricket fans who had lined up since 7am outside a hotel room where the tickets were being handed out .
The five-match limited-overs series between the two Asian nuclear neighbours is tied 1-1 after Pakistan won the opening game by seven runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method in Peshawar on Monday.
India recorded a resounding seven-wicket victory in the second match at Rawalpindi on Saturday.
Indian fans had booked about 3 900 tickets online, and most fans arrived on Sunday on a three-day visa, hoping to collect their tickets that day.
”We have just seven people to distribute the online tickets and most of the fans arrived today,” Sohail Ahmed, who was contracted by the Pakistan Cricket Board to handle the internet bookings told The Associated Press.
Ahmed had established a ticket counter in a hotel room near the Gaddafi Stadium — the venue for Monday’s match — but some of the fans couldn’t even make it through the front door.
”We had to tell [the security guards] ‘look, we want to have soft drink in your hotel, please do let us inside,”’ Sethi said.
Paramjeet Singh, a history professor at India’s University of Punjab, came to Lahore with his friend, Avtar Singh. They said they had been standing in line for more than two hours. Neither knew when they would get their tickets.
It was the first visit to Pakistan for 60-year-old Avtar Singh, whose father was born in Lahore before India and Pakistan gained their independence from Britain in 1947.
”My main purpose to come to Pakistan is not to see players of both teams but to see the city where my father once used to live,” Singh said.
Almost all Indian fans received a three-day visa for Monday’s match, with most arriving on Sunday and hoping to collect their ticket that day.
”These Indian fans should have at least been issued visas for five days so that they could have come early and collect their tickets,” he said.
Ahmed said he had handed out about 2 250 tickets in the last two days.
”We have been working here round the clock and I expect another 1 000 Indian fans to come and collect their tickets even tomorrow,” he said.
”I don’t know how much they are going to miss of the match, but we will do our best so that they can see the live action,” he added.
Anil Kumar Jain, a 49-year-old businessman from India’s northern industrial town of Ludhiana, was one of the lucky ones.
”I came on Saturday and when I came here early in the morning today, I got my ticket without any problem,” he said. – Sapa-AP