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The average India fan will miss the chance to watch the team play in England because of high ticket prices. .
December 7, 2006, 7:00 pm GMT
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The average India fan will miss the chance to watch the team play in England because of high ticket prices.
India arrive in England in July to play three Tests and seven ODIs against the hosts. They will also be playing one-day games in Ireland and Scotland.
The tour has been dubbed the Indian summer, but will burn a hole in the pockets of fans who want to watch their heroes in action. Tickets for the first Test at Lord’s have been priced between £50 and £65 for each day’s play and only a few remain on sale.
India will also be playing a number of warm-up matches, which have also been heavily priced. Those supporters who want to watch India play against Sussex and England A will have to fork out between £20 to £27 to watch the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in action.
Shai Tank, director of leading Indian fan group Bharat Army, told Eastern Eye: I personally think it is disgusting.
If you look at the tickets on offer for the West Indies tour and compare it to the prices on offer for the India games, there is between £5-£10 difference in prices.
'It is just ridiculous. I don’t see why they would [ramp] up the prices. A lot of our fans are going to boycott the games purely because of the ticket prices.'
Tickets at all three Test venues have virtually sold out and the few tickets that remain will cost fans dear.
For instance, those desperate to catch a glimpse of the Boys in Blue at the Oval at the third Test will have to pay £85 for day four.
Tank said that a lot of supporters would not be able to take their families to watch the game because it would not be financially possible.
'I have personally lost a lot of enthusiasm for the game purely because of the ticket prices,'he said. 'Cricket hasn’t reached the profile (of football) to merit upping the cost of tickets to such a high level. They (authorities) are ruining the game.'
Many of the tickets have already been sold out, with most of them likely to appear on auction web sites such as ebay. Tank believes that the high prices of tickets was playing into the hands of touts. I have seen some websites where tickets are going for £150. They are giving the touts the market.
A lot of fans will decide late in the day if they want to go watch a game. By then, the touts will be charging high prices and people will pay because they want to go see the match, even though it will leave them out of pocket.
'One thing is for sure – the atmosphere at the games won’t be as big as before as many of the long-term fans can’t afford to go.' |
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