Kanpur uses push,pull for precious few tickets

Around the stadium and even elsewhere in the city,the talk is about getting a ticket or better,managing a pass to watch the game. The first option is more or less ruled out. While Green Park has an official capacity of 30,000,only 16,000 tickets were put on sale. Within a couples of hours on Monday,the counters ran out of tickets. There were allegations that people were buying more tickets than the permitted two per person. Tempers frayed among those in the kilometer-long queues. Police lathicharged the lines. The process repeated itself on Tuesday.

Perhaps,this wouldn’t have been the case the last time an ODI was held here in 2008 — one between India and England.

Reduced Capacity

THE Green Park Stadium originally claimed a capacity of over 40,000 spectators. Most of those sat in the uncovered cement rows of the Rs. 100 a seat ‘college stands’ and the ‘student galleries’ on either side of the wicket. The official seating capacity of those sections was around 10,000 but at least 15,000 used to squeeze in. Comprising mostly of students from nearby colleges,it was also the loudest,most vocal sections of the crowd.

The stand was also perhaps the most notorious. Locals recall how a few years back,oranges and stones would fly from that section of the stands onto the field.

The recent renovation of the stadium though saw half the student galleries make way for the — Rs 50,000 and above — corporate boxes and bucket seats in the VIP gallery and Directors Pavilion which seat around 6,500 spectators.

All this means that there are fewer tickets and passes to go around.

Harried Officials

Rajeev Shukla is generally the calm face of the BCCI,capable of answering tough questions with an unshakable smile on his face. But with the game in his backyard,the UPCA secretary was feeling the heat.

“Yes I am under a lot of pressure. There is a massive demand for this game because everybody wants tickets or passes,and you have to try and get something for everybody. In our culture,spectators are a combination of ticket holders and pass holders,so we have to keep that in mind. The problem is that after the renovation,our capacity has come down from 60,000 to around 38,000. That makes it harder to fit everyone in. What we have to do is to build a few more stands like the Director’s Pavilion to get the capacity back to 60,000,” he says.

While state cricket associations are usually the best bet for free passes,the UPCA has few to share. The Green Park Stadium is property of the UP government and thus,some 10,000 passes have reportedly made their way to the state agencies. Most UPCA officials are tough to trace.

“We have to switch off our phones and communicate using an alternate number. Otherwise,we will get innumerable calls from people asking for passes. We will switch them on at about lunch on the match day,” says one who wishes to remain unnamed.

Police Story

For those who aren’t lucky enough to have made the ticketing queues early enough,have an uncle with sifarish to wrangle a pass,or have the means to buy on the black market — as they will invariable appear outside the stadium on the day of the match — options are still available.

Constable Siya Ram Pal has scored a lucky posting inside the stadium. While the police have 500 tickets to distribute to family members,Pal never even applied. “The passes first go to the commanding officers,then the inspectors and only then to the constables. So when you have a match like this,then there is almost no chance to get one,” he says.

While his family has no chance of watching the game from the stadium,Pal ensures that his colleagues who are standing guard outside have better luck.

“At the start of the match everyone has to be doing their duty,but after everyone is seated,the police on the outside come into the ground,and watch the match for sometime,and then those of us inside,take their place outside. That way everyone gets a chance to watch the match,” he says.