The year 2022 is also expected to be the year for cricket, with several tournaments already lined up. However, cricket lovers’ excitement for the T20 Men’s World Cup 2022 is at the next level.
This year’s World Cup is being hosted by Aus-tralia, and matches will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
While the tournament is huge, cricket lovers around the world are waiting for that one much-awaited historic match between arch-rivals Pakistan and India.
According to cricket.com.au, ticket allocations for this year’s men’s T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan at the MCG sold out within five minutes of going on sale to the general public on Monday.
Meanwhile, tickets available for India’s second group game at the SCG were also sold out on Mon-day, despite their opponent not yet being known.
Tickets for the tournament, which will be held at seven Australian venues between October 16 and November 13 this year, are now on sale to the pub-lic after 200,000 tickets were snapped up during the pre-sale period.
This comes as no surprise. The October 23 match between rivals India and Pakistan — who don’t currently play bilateral cricket due to security concerns — was immensely popular and ticket allo-cations were exhausted within five minutes of going on sale.
The two sides last faced each other on Austra-lian soil at the Adelaide Oval during the 2015 ODI World Cup, a match that also sold out in just min-utes.
India’s game against South Africa at the MCG during that tournament, when more than 86,000 attended, offers a preview of what is sure to be a bumper crowd of close to 90,000 people.
Tickets for an SCG double-header on October 27, which will see South Africa face Bangladesh before India take on a qualifier in the evening, were also exhausted shortly after going on sale on Mon-day.
It is pertinent to mention here that tickets for the tournament start at $5 for children and $20 for adults.
Tournament CEO Michelle Enright said while most tickets so far have been purchased by Austra-lian residents, she’s hopeful the imminent re-opening of Australia’s borders will encourage inter-national tourists to attend the event.
“We know that so far our ticket purchasers are predominantly residing in Australia, so to have two match-days with general ticket allocations all sold out that feature India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and South Africa shows the passion for cricket from fans in those communities,” she said.
“With news of Australian borders starting to open to visitors from February 21, the timing is perfect for fans around the world to start planning a trip to Australia and be part of a global cricket cele-bration later this year.”
Other matches to sell strongly so far are Austra-lia’s tournament opener against New Zealand in Sydney on October 22, their match against England at the MCG on October 28, and the tournament final in Melbourne on November 13.
Australia will play games in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide, in that order, before the semi-finals are held in Sydney and Ade-laide.
Per details, this year’s tournament will again fea-ture 16 teams and be run in the same Super 12 for-mat as the previous edition, held in the UAE last October-November.
The Australian team that won their first-ever T20 World Cup in Dubai last year has been grouped with New Zealand, England, Afghanistan and two teams that will come through the first round of the tournament.
India, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, and two further teams from the first round will make up the second group.—AFP
