It was a nightmare for the thousands of cricket fans who descended on the Gymkhana Ground with the hope of purchasing tickets for the T-20 international match between India and Australia, scheduled to be held at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad on Thursday.
It was a sorry sight to see so many women cricket fans who were standing in the queue since early morning, with some of them were seen holding kids in their arms. Many were injured in the utter chaos at the Ground even as police had to resort to lathicharge the fans.
Though there were reports of a woman fan succumbing to the injuries in the melee, the top police official at the spot was seen insisting to a TV channel that it was not true and only some were rushed for treatment of minor injuries.
Police resort to lathicharge as cricket fans throng Gymkhana Ground in Uppal for buying India-Australia T20 match tickets on September 22, 2022. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
“We don’t think they even sold 100 tickets at the two counters even after two hours of wait after the sale began at 10.00 am today,” the fans alleged.
“It was a clear case of poor handling of the ticket sale and questioned the logic of HCA in selling tickets when online transactions would have been more viable and easier for us,” many fans complained.
“We came here to buy tickets not to face this kind of treatment. We blame the HCA for this complete mess,” said one of the irate fans who was trapped in the chaos.
Huge crowd turned up the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on September 21, 2022, to buy tickets for the third and final T-20 international between India and Australia to be played in Hyderabad on September 25. They returned empty handed as tickets were not sold. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Many questioned the way HCA top brass handled the tickets sale and even alleged that according to the officials only 3,000 tickets were available for selling inside the two counters.
Clearly, there is a communication gap from the HCA side as the media release late on Wednesday evening didn’t give the exact break-up on the pricing of different denominations, and worse unlike in the past where the tickets were on sale at different centres in the twin cities besides online sale.
Sports Minister summons HCA officials
In a related development, Telangana Sports Minister V. Srinivas Goud, summoned the HCA officials including the president Mohd Azharuddin to his official chambers to seek an explanation about the whole issue. "We want to know how many tickets were up for sale, how many complimentaries were given, and other related details," the Minister said.
“This is a total failure of the HCA,” the Minister added.
“It is disgusting that the HCA officials, despite being warned about this kind of trouble cropping up, didn’t bother to take corrective measures,” he said.
