Hotels overbooked, ticket touts on prowl as all eyes in Melbourne on India-Pak Sunday

“HOW IS it possible for tickets to be sold out in just 10 minutes?” a local Melbourne Radio host wonders. A more rhetorical query wouldn’t have possibly crackled over Melbourne’s airwaves in recent times.
This is a city that regularly hosts the Aussie Open Grand Slam and the Boxing Day Test. It has also witnessed the ODI World Cup finals. But still, Melbourne was surprised the speed at which tickets for Sunday’s World T20 game between India and Pakan got snapped up online.

“After so many years, India and Pakan will play in Melbourne. The last time they played against each other here was in the 1980s. There is a big buzz and everyone is looking forward to this Sunday. It will be a big carnival for the expats here,” says Jaspreet Manku, a fan who hopes to catch the action.
The last time, incidentally, wasn’t just any other Melbourne day in the 1980s — it was that evening when Ravi Shastri drove his newly won Audi straight into a nation’s imagination.
This time, even the cliched immigration query about the visit’s purpose wasn’t asked. Everyone knows why Asian tours, fans, journals and corporate sponsors with World Cup visas are flying in. AirBnB rooms have been priced at four-fold the regular rates. For a three-night stay, fans have to shell out Rs 12,000 extra in the name of cleaning charges. The hotels are, of course, overbooked.

At the airport, a group of businessmen from across India assembled and lened intently to the person in charge explaining the immigration process. A multinational company had rewarded them with a trip to Melbourne along with tickets to the India-Pakan game for meeting their targets one month before the World T20. Even smaller companies have flown over clients in business class with match tickets and corporate-box meals to sculpt a perfect Sunday.
Raj Khandwala, CEO of Cutting Edge sports, says they have received requests from the time the schedule of the World Cup was announced.

“Around 900 people have booked with us for the India vs Pakan game and they will all fly in before the game. So imagine the situation: we have to do bulk booking for them in advance. The fans are coming from the US, UK, Canada and all parts of the world to watch this game,” said Khandwala.
And of course, there are ticket touts prowling about, selling tickets at six times more than the actual rate although the Victoria government had advised against purchasing tickets from unauthorised dealers.
Amid all the excitement, the Indian team had an optional practice round with the likes of Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik having brief sessions. “Out of the stadium!” piped up a fan, prompting Kohli to slowly turn around and say, “Don’t shout during practice, please. Draction…” Videos of Rohit Sharma practising with a left-hand throw-down special has already gone viral as he prepares to face Shaheen Afridi, the Pakan pacer who knocked him down in the last World Cup.
It’s not just the match. Everyone has one eye on the sky, too, with chances of rain on Sunday evening pegged at 90 percent. The maximum possibility is of showers hitting the city late Sunday afternoon and early evening, which could derail the marquee match-up in some form. But as it rained heavily on Friday night, local authorities were confident that the T20 game could resume even if it was stopped for more than 30 minutes.
Everyone and everything is ready: the players, the fans, the tickets, the city. Hopefully, the clouds over Melbourne won’t be.