Lukewarm response for Eden Test

Even Sachin Tendulkar's impending 100th international century failed to generate interest among the cricket lovers of the city as on the first day of sale less than 100 tickets were booked for the second Test between India and the West Indies beginning here on November 14.

According to figures available from the Cricket Association of Bengal, 98 tickets were sold from the counters marking a poor response for the Test. "66 tickets of INR 500 denomination, 21 of INR 1,000 and the rest of INR 1,500 were sold," said a CAB official.

CAB treasurer Subir Ganguly blamed it on the timing of the five-day match which falls on the weekdays.

"There is no weekend during the match. So there will be low turnout and the ticket sales were below standard," Ganguly told PTI.

But he hoped that sales would pick up on the eve of the match when daily tickets would be available.

"These are season tickets. But the response for the daily tickets will be better as and when people get to know about India batting with Tendulkar's record in mind."

The daily tickets prices would be five times lower than the usual season tickets beginning with INR 100.

Meanwhile, both the teams are scheduled to land at 11am tomorrow morning while cynosure of all eyes, Tendulkar is likely to arrive the next day, said team sources.

This will be Eden Gardens third international match in less than a month's time as the venue hosted England in an ODI (October 25) and Twenty20 (October 29) which also had witnessed poor crowd turnout.

In fact in the one-dayer, the Eden, known for its crowd frenzy, recorded its lowest ever turn out in a match involving India with only 27,000 filling in the 65,000 capacity stadium.

The Kolkata Police would have an inspection tomorrow morning.