The demand for tickets to the Asia Cup final between Bangladesh and India reached the ultimate height as hosts’ fans are not interested to settle with anything but being present at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday. Although Bangladesh hosted numerous international matches in recent times, Bangladesh Cricket Board officials said that the demand for tickets is unprecedented this time.
It forced the cricket board to issue an administrative order cancelling all allotted tickets for its employees.
An e-mail sent out by an administrator on May 3 said that unlike the past, the employees will be allowed to buy tickets by giving pre-requisition.
Most of the board directors said that they had left switched off their mobiles so that they did not need to entertain any requests for tickets.
The official capacity of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium is 25,000.
The board usually distributes half of the tickets complimentarily to different stakeholders. Despite that, officials said that they could not make all happy.
Omar Hossain, member secretary of the board’s tickets and seating committee, said that they would make half of the tickets available with the UCBL Bank for Saturday.
Fans were seen standing in queues for ticket on Friday.
‘We have a group of friends planning to stay here overnight,’ said a fan, who identified himself as Saiful.
Not everyone, however, was prepared to take the trouble.
Some fans were seen booking grand-stand tickets with people selling tickers on the black market for Tk 8,000 against the price of Tk 3,000.
It has been alleged that a group of board employees are involved in the sales of tickets on the black market.
Omar Hasan said that this was one of the reasons they had stopped employees buying tickets.
The ticket price of the VIP stand is TK 1,000.
The ticket price of the Shahid Mustaque/Jewel stand is Tk 500; the price of tickets for the North/South stand Tk 250 and the Eastern Stand is Tk 150.
-With New Age input
