Dubai: The much-awaited ticket sales for the India-Pakistan match for the Asia Cup to be held in Dubai picked up steam after the sale began at 6pm UAE time and was sold out in minutes.
"The first batch of tickets for India vs Pakistan match has been sold out and the organisers will release the next batch of tickets in the following days. All other matches remain on sale, so please stay in the queue to buy tickets," Platinumlist, the official ticketing site, posted on their website.
Over 5,000 fans were in the queue minutes after the booking opened with a waiting time of about 50 minutes. The tickets for the rest of the matches in Dubai International Cricket Stadium and Sharjah Cricket Stadium were available along with tickets for the Hospitality category for India-Pakistan game, priced from Dh2,500.
Even since Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced their ticket sales for the continental showpiece, fans have been eagerly waiting to book their seats for their favourite matches, especially the India-Pakistan game.
Bonanza awaits fans
“Ticket sales for Asia Cup 2022 go up for sale on August 15th. Visit the link below from Monday onwards to book your tickets:” ACC tweeted on Saturday night with a link to platinumlist.net, and along with it the entire schedule of the continental showpiece.
According to the schedule, a bonanza awaits the cricket fans as India and Pakistan could face each other as many as three times during the 16-day event. The Asian superpowers will be meeting again in the round-robin Super Four stage after their opener in Group A and in the final, should both qualify.
The six-team Asia Cup will begin on August 27 with a match between hosts Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in Dubai while India play Pakistan the following day. Dubai and Sharjah will be hosting the entire matches and the final is set to be held September 11 at the Dubai International.
Qualifiers for one berth
The five Test-playing nations, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, will be joined by winners of the qualifiers among UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong to be played in Oman.
Teams for the qualifiers of the Asia Cup booked their berth contesting in the ACC Western Region 2020 — UAE and Kuwait, hosted by Oman, and ACC Eastern Region 2020 — Singapore and Hong Kong, hosted by Thailand.
The Asia Cup Twenty20 was initially to be staged in Sri Lanka but the prevailing political conditions in the island nation has forced the Asia Cricket Council to move it to the UAE.
The Asia Cup, last held in 2018 as a 50-over tournament also in UAE, will now be played in the T20 format with three teams in Group A and B. India, Pakistan and qualifier in Group A, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Group B. Top two teams will qualify for the round robin Super Four stage. In the 2018 final, India defeated Bangladesh by three wickets at the Dubai International Stadium in 2018.
