A fan's agony

I am writing this to further highlight fans' agony arising out of the ICC World T20 ticketing fiasco.

While still awaiting confirmation about the ticket bookings due to the lottery system, I have summarised our plight below:

1. Waiting indefinitely for tickets. The BCCI never stuck to one date in their press releases.

2. The agony of constantly checking websites and the news, hoping that tickets would go on sale soon. For an international fan, this means coordinating tour and travel dates and flight tickets at the same time. Which is still a shambles, thanks to the ticketing process.

3. The procedure of actually booking the tickets is quite complicated in itself. There was not much clarity in the PDF document uploaded on the ICC website, which I believe has been corrected now. And the lottery system further adds to the uncertainty. (Read: booking flight tickets, hotels and domestic travel.)

4. Limit of two tickets for the crucial matches. That means I cannot travel with my family of four (a common problem, I suspect).

5. Even if say, a family member and I get allotted tickets through the lottery system, the seat allocation is random. This makes it unlikely that I would be able to enjoy the match together with my family.

6. The ticket processing PDF document uploaded online mentions about the ability to pay for the tickets only 15 days prior to the match once the ticket is allocated. More uncertainty. I am not entirely sure if this is the case. But again, it's quite confusing.

7. Given the popularity of cricket, both locally and internationally, the travelling fans would have been a great added value to the hosting states' economies and, hence, India's economy.

All in all there is not much fans can do. A World Cup is the best cricketing experience a fan can have, irrespective of the format of the game. While the cricketing spirit lives forever, I believe the ticketing fiasco will make the WorldT20 2016 a less memorable experience for many.