Mumbai:
After the ticket rush in Mohali for the India-Pakistan semi-final, now Mumbai faces a similar predicament. Too many fans, too little seats.
With India Inc reported to be present in full force, the predicament gets deeper.
As many as 40 corporate boxes have been sold, priced at an average of Rs 3.75 crore.
Each box has a capacity to seat 15 people and the proud owners can lord over the possession for the next ten years.
The biggest buyers have been Reliance Industries Limited. They have reportedly bought three boxes for over Rs 11 crore.
A long list of other corporates has also paid up for these exclusive boxes, which include Essar Industries, Kingfisher, Idea, Bajaj, Tata Consultancy Services among others.
The price of corporate boxes is a sign of the massive demand for tickets for the final.
But the irony is for a game that's drawn big cricketers, like Sachin Tendulkar, from humble maidaans there are hardly any tickets available for the aam aadmi.
The aam aadmi though was lathicharged for being too demanding and for crowding the ticket counters. The anger simmers within.
In the run up to the end game that anger is peaking.
''I have come here for tickets but there are none," said a disappointed supporter.
''Why does the ICC need 9,000 tickets? What about us?" asked another dismayed fan.
The Wankhede Stadium has a capacity of 32,000, but just 4,000 were available to the aam aadmi: that's just 12.5 per cent of the total seats.
Sample this. The Clubs affiliated to the Mumbai Cricket Association have got 14,000 tickets; the International Cricket Association has 8,500 tickets; the BCCI has a quota of 2,000. And the state government has 250.
''4,000 for the public sale is the same number which was available in 1996 World Cup or the public sale, although our capacity has come down from 38,000 to 32,000. I firmly believe that the ordinary cricketers in Mumbai who are our members of 350 clubs are also people of Mumbai itself. They are not outsiders,'' said Ratnakar Shetty, Tournament Director, World Cup.
A tame explanation for Mumbaikars, for whom watching a World Cup final on home ground is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. May be they have lost it already to the big wigs.