Mumbai Test: Good for spectators; bad for club cricketers

Day Three of the fourth Test between India and England at Wankhede Stadium witnessed around 22,000 spectators, who enjoyed watching century efforts from India opener Murali Vijay and skipper Virat Kohli. However, the 34,000 capacity stadium attracted only 12,000 to 15000 spectators during the first two days of the Test

Spectators enjoy the atmosphere on Day Three of the fourth Test between India and England at Wankhede. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Day Three of the fourth Test between India and England at Wankhede Stadium witnessed around 22,000 spectators, who enjoyed watching century efforts from India opener Murali Vijay and skipper Virat Kohli. However, the 34,000 capacity stadium attracted only 12,000 to 15000 spectators during the first two days of the Test.

This is due to the 329 affiliated clubs of Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).

Clubs can purchase a maximum of 22 tickets at a concessional rate which works out to Rs 7,500 approximately. But this time, they only picked up 1,500 tickets and MCA sold the remaining tickets online to the public at Rs 1,000 per ticket, which is also the normal rate.

"Since our club members had purchased only 1,500 tickets we took a decision to sell the remaining 6,000 tickets online to the general public at Rs 1,000 per ticket on the first day of the match. By doing this, we witnessed a near-packed stadium today and also benefited financially," MCA managing committee member Vinod Deshpande told mid-day on Saturday.

When asked why club members were not interested in purchasing tickets, Deshpande said: "I see three reasons. Demonetisation is the primary one. Secondly, we are accepting payments only by cheque and lastly, the less interest in the longer format of the game.

We get overwhelming response (from clubs and spectators) for ODIs and T20s," he added. However, clubs not buying tickets from the MCA means club cricketers are deprived of watching Test cricket at a discounted rate.

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