Followers and consultants blame scorching climate and lingering tensions between each nations for the handfuls of unsold tickets.
Printed On 14 Sep 2025
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Dozens of tickets for the India vs Pakistan cricket match on the Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai stay unsold on the morning of the fixture, a uncommon incidence for a cricket match between the South Asian archrivals.
With lower than eight hours earlier than the beginning of the 6:30pm (14:30 GMT) sport, tickets had been obtainable on Sunday in three stands and one hospitality part of the Dubai Worldwide Cricket Stadium on the match’s official ticketing web site.
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Tickets priced at $205 within the premium stand, in addition to these costing $245 within the east and west pavilion stands, had been obtainable of their dozens.
Seats had been additionally obtainable in one of many a number of hospitality stands, costing $1,645 apiece.
Whereas the match’s organisers – the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) – haven’t made an official touch upon the unsold tickets, native followers blame the new climate within the Gulf nation as a significant discouraging issue.
“September is among the hottest months on this a part of the world, with excessive temperatures and excessive humidity, making it tough to be outside even within the evenings,” Shahid Khan, a Dubai resident, advised Al Jazeera.
“Whereas gamers could receives a commission to play on this climate, followers need to spend massive quantities of cash to buy tickets. Why would they try this to undergo within the warmth?”
The temperature within the night, near the match begin time, is forecast at 36C (95F), with humidity touching 50 %.
Al Jazeera reached out to the ACC however was advised the official ticket sale figures could be confirmed as soon as the match will get underneath approach and no remark could be made on the gross sales till then.
Cricket consultants consider the extremely strained political relations between India and Pakistan, who had been concerned in an intense four-day cross-border battle in Could, are additionally to be blamed.
“Some followers have determined to boycott the fixture as a way to register their protest towards their authorities’s determination to go forward with the match regardless of the continuing bitterness towards the neighbour,” Indian cricket author Kuldip Lal advised Al Jazeera within the lead-up to the match.
Whereas it’s not uncommon to identify vacant seats in cricket matches within the UAE, tickets for an India-Pakistan males’s cricket match in any a part of the world promote like scorching truffles on most events.
Sometimes, tickets promote out inside a number of hours of happening sale, particularly for world and regional tournaments comparable to ICC World Cups or the Asia Cup.
Followers are identified to go to nice lengths, together with paying excessive premiums on resale platforms and within the black market, to get their palms on a ticket.
