Amit and his friends have been waiting for three hours at the Wankhede stadium without any luck.

The 19-year-old was hoping to get tickets for one of cricket’s biggest showpiece events that kicks off on Thursday.

The renovated Wankhede can seat 32,500 spectators. Hundreds of others like Amit wait outside the Vinoo Mankad Gate to catch a glimpse of Sachin Tendulkar who, over the years, has come to be revered as the country’s demigod.

They peer through the gates desperate for a glimpse of the Master Blaster taking guard during his practice session inside the stadium which, over the next five days, will become his farewell arena.

The guards outside the Gate keep people at bay as luxury sedans carrying the high and mighty of Indian cricket drive in and out. The scene outside, however, is calm compared to the hectic activity inside the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) building within the Wankhede.

Getting tickets

People flock to the third floor of the MCA office making polite requests for tickets. The offices of the Joint Secretary and Treasurer are besieged by people wanting to get their seats confirmed. Phones are ringing incessantly while a patient MCA official answers with the standard line,  “Haalat jhaali aahe. Please saha cha nantar call kara.” (The situation is pretty tight. Please call after 6 p.m.)

Vinod Deshpande, MCA Treasurer, manages to squeeze in five minutes to speak to  Business Line . “The ticket demand is huge this time. We are trying to satisfy everybody,” he said. When online ticket agency Kyazoonga opened to sell tickets, it got overwhelmed by the 2.1 million simultaneous hits; the website crashed.

“Kyazoonga told us that the hits were five times more than what they got for Olympics,” says Deshpande. Finally it ended up selling fewer than 4,000 tickets.

Jatin Vakil, a Baroda Cricket Association official, has been drafted in by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to help with the logistics for this “historic match.” “Each and every seat has been sold out for all the five days of the match,” he says. However, MCA maintains that the tickets are not sold only to the rich and powerful. There are 329 clubs associated with the association. Each of them, which nurtures future cricketers, has about 30 members.

“We are sitting here because of them. They elect us, so we have to give them tickets,” says Deshpande, adding that such clubs have got 8,250 tickets. Another 10,000 tickets have been reserved for VIPs and the balance given to corporate houses (Tatas and Garware) which helped build the stadium. Sachin has taken about 500 tickets for his friends and family.

“We are not hosting this match for profit and that is why tickets are sold between Rs 500-2,500. We thought the general public should get the tickets,” says Deshpande

According to him, not more than 5,000 tickets have been sold over-the-counter in the past at Wankhede. And these are special tickets for this big occasion. Printed at Rs 35 apiece, each of the five tickets (for different days of the Test) has different pictures of Tendulkar in action.

“People can preserve them as a souvenir,” quips Deshpande.

satyanarayan.iyer@thehindu.co.in

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