By:
Chandrashekar Bhat
SRI LANKA Cricket slashed ticket costs for the Asia Cup by as much as 95 per cent on Sunday (10) after prices have been hiked 40-fold and matches have been performed in near-empty stadiums.
Tickets for one-day internationals in crisis-hit Sri Lanka have usually price round Rs 250 ($0.78) beforehand.
That was hiked to Rs 10,000 ($31.02) for the Asia Cup, which is being organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board regardless of largely happening in Sri Lanka, and followers within the cricket-mad island nation have stayed away in droves.
Barely 7,000 residence supporters turned out for Sri Lanka’s Tremendous 4 conflict towards Bangladesh on Saturday (9) on the 35,000-capacity R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, leaving the hosts dealing with the embarrassing sight of ranks of empty seats.
In an try to lure them again, Sri Lanka Cricket introduced a value reduce of as much as 95 per cent on Sunday for all remaining Tremendous 4 video games, together with the marquee conflict between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, with tickets now costing as little as Rs 500 ($1.55).
The stratospheric value hikes had infuriated followers.
Sri Lanka endured months of meals, gasoline and medication shortages final yr after a international trade crunch, which sparked widespread protests culminating within the ouster of its president.
The 50-over Asia Cup is a precursor to the upcoming ODI World Cup, and many of the matches have been moved to Sri Lanka after India refused to tour Pakistan on account of political tensions.
“Pakistan have stored the ticket pricing too excessive and that has stored followers away from the stadiums,” a neighborhood Sri Lankan official mentioned on situation of anonymity.
“Ticket prices… are manner past the attain of a standard man,” he added.
“That is weird. We tried to motive with the PCB however that they had their causes as they’ve misplaced out on cash, perhaps.”
The PCB didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
‘Love of cricket’
There have been nonetheless hardly any spectators on Sunday for the India-Pakistan sport, for which grandstand tickets have been priced at a whopping Rs 64,000 ($200).
And followers weren’t amused.
“This isn’t good. We love cricket however can not pay a lot to observe a match,” Supun Vijayarathnam, a tea vendor exterior the Colombo stadium, mentioned.
“I’ve watched many matches right here for simply 100 and 200 rupees. However this time I’ve to observe it on TV and simply hear the noise, which after all is much less.”
Followers travelled from each India and Pakistan for the hotly anticipated conflict after their first assembly was washed out in Pallekele.
“We paid 16,000 Sri Lankan rupees for this sport. We have been there in Kandy as nicely and needed to pay 15,000 there,” Arun Kumar Yadav, from the northern Indian metropolis of Lucknow, mentioned.
“The costs are too excessive from the final time that we got here right here,” added the 35-year-old. “However it’s the love of cricket.”
A avenue vendor promoting India and Pakistan jerseys and flags mentioned that regardless of the sport being a blockbuster, there have been “fewer followers and the thrill is much less”.
(AFP)
