HYDERABAD: Notwithstanding the ongoing Telangana agitation and sluggish TRP ratings for cricket matches over the past few months, Hyderabad seems set to welcome the upcoming India-England One Day International, in style.Tickets for the match to be held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday sold like hot cakes at the seven e-Seva centres across the city on Tuesday.The tickets were sold within a few hours after the counters opened this morning.“The entire batch of 800 tickets of Rs 300 denomination was sold out within two hours of opening the counter at morning eight,” said an official at the e-Seva Centre, Banjara Hills.The centres at Paradise and Harihara Kala Bhavan witnessed frantic last-minute scramble as the day wore on.Towards late afternoon, one could see a long queue in front of the e-seva centres for the few remaining tickets of Rs 300 denomination.“Even though Rs 300 tickets were the fastest moving, we registered a fairly good sale of Rs 1000 tickets as well. The demand for Rs1500 tickets has not been great,” an official at the Paradise Circle branch told City Express.Most centres managed to sell around 50-60 tickets of both Rs 1000 and Rs 1500 denominations. The city’s passion for cricket even in times of turmoil, came to the fore when some centres saw fans come all the way from the outskirts braving transportation bottlenecks just to get their hand on the economical Rs 300 ticket. But as fate would have it, one such youth had to end up paying Rs 1000 since the Rs 300 tickets were sold out.“Not disappointed though,” said the elated fan, as he showed his Rs 1000 ticket. Ticket sales have also started on the website www.kyazoonga.com , the official online ticketing partner for the series, from Tuesday morning. But with the site allowing online purchase of only Rs 1500 and above tickets, the common man was completely dependent on e-Seva centres.From Wednesday, six branches of UCO bank too will open counters for ticket sales, which is expected to ease the demandsupply gap.So was this rush expected despite critics pointing to an overdose of cricket and the absence of big names in the Indian team for the upcoming series? Irfan and Fayaz, two city-based youth gave a thumbs up saying, “Cricket is always a big affair. Even if players like Sachin and Yuvraj are not playing, the match is all about a day of entertainment and a chance to see international stars in action.”
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