On BookMyShow, IND vs. PAK WC tickets to be available
The strange behaviour of BookMyShow for World Cup tickets has puzzled a number of fans. While tickets were “sold out” in minutes when the window opened for the first time, they were again made available, with the BCCI and ICC releasing 400,000 more tickets. But now, the stadiums say something else. Till now, in the ODI World Cup, stadiums have been almost half-empty. After backlash from fans on social media, BookMyShow will make more India vs. Pakistan tickets available this week.
Both times, World Cup tickets were sold out for the England vs. New Zealand World Cup opener, and the gigantic stadium could not even fill half the seats. Similarly, a sold-out Pakistan vs. Netherlands match in Hyderabad also sported a deserted look at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday.
And the story continued in Dharamsala, which has only 19,000 capacity. Around 30% of the seats were still empty during the Afghanistan vs. Bangladesh match. Even back in Delhi, the story had no happy ending. For the South Africa vs. Netherlands clash, around 40% of seats were unoccupied.
To make things worse, BookMyShow has put up a “Coming Soon” banner for 7 out of 9 India matches. That means tickets are available, and it was a fault on their part in either communication or technology that many fans left empty-handed when it began selling tickets.