'Mission find World XI tickets' continues as cricket fever runs high

LAHORE: With no more online tickets left for next week’s World XI tour of Pakistan, cricket fans desperate to join in on the action inside Gaddafi Stadium are queuing up in hundreds outside Bank of Punjab branches to grab their tickets for Pakistan vs World XI T20 matches.

But to the dismay of many, only Rs4,000 and Rs6,000 tickets remain – the rest have all sold out.

“I came here to get Rs500 tickets, but then I found out only Rs4000 onwards are left. I won’t be able to afford them,” said a cricket fan standing outside the Bank of Punjab since early morning.

“I really wanted to watch the matches live, at the stadium. But now I won’t be able to go, because I couldn’t get the Rs500 ones,” said another dejected fan.

Tickets for the World XI series, dubbed the ‘Independence Cup 2017’, began selling at 13 branches of the Bank of Punjab across the city on Thursday.

According to the Bank of Punjab sources, the bank’s head office received 17,000 tickets to put on sale, which included Rs2,500, Rs4,000, Rs6,000 and Rs8,000 tickets. The head office did not receive any Rs500 tickets for the General Stand category, all of which were sold out online, the sources said.

The much-awaited three-T20 match series, which will be played on September 12, 13 and 15, promises to open the doors to international cricket in Pakistan – long deprived of global cricket action after a militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009.