COLOMBO: Ticket demand for Sunday’s blockbuster ICC World Cup T20 clash between arch-rivals Pakistan and India has sent Colombo into a frenzy days ahead of the first ball at the R Premadasa Stadium, The news reported.
A visit to the stadium’s ticket booths on Thursday showed long, chaotic lines still forming outside the counters despite officials saying the match was already sold out.
“We don’t have any tickets available for Sunday’s game. I don’t know why fans are still lining up,” said one of the attendees at the booth. “The entire 37,000-seat stadium was sold out yesterday. Most of the tickets were bought online.”
Interestingly, there was no visible ‘Sold Out’ sign at the counters, adding to the confusion among supporters who had traveled from different parts of Sri Lanka and even abroad in the hope of securing last-minute tickets.
“We have not received any instructions from the organizers to put a sold out notice,” clarified another official at the booth when asked about the absence of public information.
The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry, often called the “mother of all matches”, has historically broken box-office records wherever it has been staged, from Melbourne to Manchester, Dubai to New York. Colombo is no exception. In fact, this is the first time Sri Lanka is hosting a World Cup T20 encounter between the two cricketing giants, making the event even more historic and emotional.
Hotels in the city are reportedly operating at near full capacity, while airline bookings from Karachi, Lahore, Delhi and Mumbai increased earlier this week. Local transport services and vendors around the stadium are also gearing up for unprecedented activity on match days.
But where demand rises, opportunists follow.
The black market has already begun to operate discreetly around the venue and online platforms. According to local sources, tickets initially priced at Rs 500 are expected to cost somewhere between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 or even more on the day of the match.
“You will see a Rs 500 ticket selling for Rs 10,000 on Sunday,” said a local organizer on condition of anonymity. “People bought tickets in bulk through online portals. Now they want to resell them at massive profit.”
Authorities are expected to increase security around the stadium to curb illegal reselling, but experience suggests that controlling the underground ticket trade during an India-Pakistan match will be no easy task.
For many fans, however, the price is secondary to passion. The opportunity to witness Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam take on India’s formidable bowling attack, or to watch Indian batsmen battle Pakistan’s pace battery under lights at Premadasa, is a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.
