Chris Dehring, the CEO of the organising committee, completes his application for World Cup tickets after they went on sale on May 2 © Cricinfo Enlarge

Tickets for next year's World Cup finally went on sale across the Caribbean yesterday, with ticket offices opening and online sales underway.

In Jamaica, the Gleaner reported that the first applicant at the Kingston office was Winston Jones. "I have been waiting from a child to watch World Cup cricket in the Caribbean and in Jamaica in particular," he told the newspaper. "This has been a long wait and I want to cash in on getting tickets early because there are limited seats and obviously there are thousands of Jamaicans and other people across the world who would have wished to come and want to come."

But if a rush was expected, then it never materialised, with only a handful of people buying the tickets in the first few hours. An official said that online sales were expected to be far busier.

Chris Dehring, the CEO of the organisation running the tournament, told the Jamaica Observer he was delighted with the initial response. "It's been nine years in planning to host this thing and to actually have tickets on sale across the globe not just in the region, and to see the response that has taken place across the world, it is very exciting.

"It's been very exciting to see the number of persons logging on, purchasing tickets, actively from day one. We think it's going very, very well, the demand is very strong and I think it's good result to have so early."

Some 800,000 tickets are on sale for the tournament, in different packages and price range. The opening match, opening ceremony and the package which includes the final in Barbados are in high demand, organisers said.

Tickets can be bought online at www.cricketworldcup.com.