Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin stated that the team’s main batsman Virat Kohli was taken aback by the attendance on day one of the first test between India and Bangladesh in Chennai. Although the attendance was significantly low at the beginning of the match, the fans were seen coming back to the arena later in the day. Ashwin had one such interaction, where he also noticed smirked at the audience being scanty at the Game’s commencement and even pondered if there were any hitches faced by the spectators in accessing the tickets for the contest.
“The ground was completely empty on the first day. I was wondering why the ground was so empty on Day 1. Virat Kept telling me that no one was coming to watch the Test match. But from then on, there was a big crowd. I wanted to ask you why so many people had a hard time buying tickets?” Ashwin gave the floor to former cricketer Ashwath Bobo, who was most of the time on Ashwin’s YouTube channel.
Ashwath reasoned that the fans were not confident regarding the match proceeding to the fifth day hence most of them purchased only the daily ticket as opposed to the season ticket. This, therefore, caused a very long line outside the stadium with most of the supporters arriving late for the match.
“Earlier, if a ticket was sold for the match, it used to be a season ticket or day ticket. A season ticket designed to fetch short of days in consecutive or discontinuous weeks and if punched on the first day, the without fare can be availed for returning for five days later. There were many fears in the minds of very many people that the match would not creep past into Day 4 or Day 5. So obviously everyone had a confusion regarding taking up the expensive season ticket. Also when they come to take the day ticket, it is almost like a stampede. People were standing from the Pavillion to the Pattabiram Gate,” Ashwath conversed.
“Is that so that there was only one counter?” wondered Ashwin.
“Yes, there was only one counter. Many issues cropped up. When I came, there was a long queue in that line. But when I came, just like you said, the queue was broken on Day 1. So, a lot of people waited in line to purchase the one day ticket. But as you’ve said it was Saturday yesterday, it was a bit crowded. Even on Sunday, the crowd stretched to the very end of the presentation,” Ashwath retorted.
He scored a century and took six wickets as India won comfortably by 280 runs.
