Followers and consultants blame scorching climate and lingering tensions between each nations for the handfuls of unsold tickets.
Revealed 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 event’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 event’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 recent climate within the Gulf nation as a serious discouraging issue.
“September is among the hottest months on this a part of the world, with excessive temperatures and excessive humidity, making it troublesome to be open air even within the evenings,” Shahid Khan, a Dubai resident, advised Al Jazeera.
“Whereas gamers could receives a commission to play on this climate, followers should spend giant quantities of cash to buy tickets. Why would they try this to endure within the warmth?”
The temperature within the night, near the match begin time, is forecast at 36C (95F), with humidity touching 50 p.c.
Al Jazeera reached out to the ACC however was advised the official ticket sale figures can be confirmed as soon as the match will get below manner and no remark can 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 Might, are additionally to be blamed.
“Some followers have determined to boycott the fixture in an effort to register their protest in opposition to their authorities’s choice to go forward with the match regardless of the continued bitterness in opposition to the neighbour,” Indian cricket author Kuldip Lal advised Al Jazeera within the lead-up to the match.
Whereas it isn’t 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 muffins on most events.
Usually, tickets promote out inside a couple of hours of happening sale, particularly for world and regional tournaments similar to ICC World Cups or the Asia Cup.
Followers are recognized to go to nice lengths, together with paying excessive premiums on resale platforms and within the black market, to get their arms on a ticket.
