Cricket World Cup fever pushes ticket prices sky-high

Cricket World Cup fever pushes ticket prices sky-high

The Cricket World Cup final to be held at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai tomorrow has pushed ticket prices to exorbitant levels as high as $10,000 each.

India won over Pakistan in the semifinal to earn the right to battle Sri Lanka for the first all-Asian final in Cricket World Cup history. Sri Lanka and India have each won the event just once before since its inception 32 years ago.

Wankhede has the second-lowest capacity of the eight cricket grounds used in India for the sport's most prestigious event, and some have complained that this has led to high ticket prices and many fans being shut out from seeing the highly-anticipated final in person.

But the International Cricket Council said that even if they had chosen the biggest stadium, ticket prices are bound to shoot up. It also said Wankhede Stadium will serve as a "fairytale" backdrop to Sachin Tendulkar's potential 100th career century for co-host India in the Cricket World Cup.

"Can you imagine a more fairytale ending with Sachin Tendulkar getting a hundred in the final and India winning at the Wankhede, which is his home ground?," ICC chief executive officer Haroon Lorgat said. "And no matter what the number, we do not have sufficient tickets."

Just 4,000 tickets were available for sale to regular fans. Some 20,000 tickets were given to club members of the Mumbai Cricket Association. Wakhede Stadium can accommodate 33,442 spectators.

Indian police forces have formed a security perimeter surrounding the stadium which is located near the site where Pakistani extremists killed 166 people in 2008. Authorities are confident this time that no untoward incident can mar the Cricket World Cup.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Friday April 01 2011, 7:43 AM EST. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0