Last Updated on 1 year by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: “Book My Show is a complete scam” – India fans slam ticketing process for 2023 World Cup | Fans slam BCCI & Book My Show
There is only one month to go before the 2023 ODI World Cup. Excitement should be well and truly in the air by now, especially given India will be hosting the World Cup on its own for the very first time.
Instead, fans have been left scrambling for tickets, being kept in queues and accusing Book My Show (BMS), the World Cup’s ticketing partner, of a scarcely-believable scam.
BMS have been adamant that high demand in a cricket-crazy country has been the reason for long wait times. This is especially the case for the India-Pakistan clash at Ahmedabad on October 14. However, fans have dug a little deeper, inspecting the code on the BMS website and sharing their findings.
The shocking revelation found that only 8,334 tickets were allegedly made available for the match at Narendra Modi Stadium. The stadium fits 132,000 people. Speculation is rife that the majority of tickets have been withheld from the public in favour of corporates, celebrities and the like.
According to Business Outlook India, tickets for the sold-out match are available on online black-market forums for “three-to-four times the original price”.
BMS, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) are yet to provide an official response to the claims.
Fans slam Book My Show and overall planning for the World Cup
Tickets for the India-Pakistan showdown went live at 8pm (IST) on Monday September 4, just over a month before the match. Users reported that BMS kept them in the queue for hours even when the tickets were sold out within minutes. Others tried to book using multiple devices, but had no luck.
Also, fans were left disgruntled at the app’s lack of transparency regarding the number of seats available at a given point in time.
The struggle for tickets so close to the tournament comes after the final schedule was only confirmed in August. The draft schedule was changed numerous times, which has left fans scrambling to organise tickets and accommodation to be able to witness their favourite teams and players in action.
“The 2023 World Cup in India was supposed to be a huge spectacle. Never has India hosted it all by itself,” one fan wrote. “Instead it has turned into a complete mismanagement of all sorts. Tickets being sold barely 2-3 weeks before World Cup, scheduling issues, fans not getting even 10% of ticket share, international fans having no idea about anything, etc.”
Here are further reactions to the debacle that has been the build up to the 2023 World Cup.
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