Following India’s stunning victory over Australia, which secured their third appearance in the Women’s ODI World Cup final, an immediate online frenzy began as fans desperately sought tickets for the historic match.
Tickets for the final, originally priced at an affordable ₹150, had been released a week prior. It appears many supporters held off on purchasing, eagerly awaiting India’s qualification.
Despite the ICC’s announcement that all stands at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai would be open for the highly anticipated decider, the official ticketing partner, BookMyShow, initially listed only a limited selection of stands.
Immediately after India’s win, even those limited options vanished from BookMyShow, replaced by a ‘Coming Soon’ message, much to the dismay of eager fans. Simultaneously, a rampant resale market exploded on social media and platforms like Viagogo. Tickets, which started at a mere ₹150, were being scalped for over ₹4,500 – nearly thirty times their face value. By day’s end, prices escalated further, reaching a staggering ₹13,000 to ₹25,000.
Even a single remaining VIP ticket, listed for an astonishing ₹1,06,959 on Saturday morning, was quickly snatched up.
By Saturday noon, BookMyShow’s listing abruptly shifted to ‘event closed,’ without the platform ever reopening for ticket purchases during the entire 30-hour period leading up to the final.
Come Sunday, hundreds of dedicated fans, including a local mother hoping to gift her daughter a memorable birthday experience, congregated outside the stadium gates, undeterred by the massive ‘sold out’ signs or even torrential rain. Their hopeful wait, however, proved to be in vain.
While this unprecedented demand for tickets is a positive sign of the growing popularity of women’s cricket, it also highlights persistent issues like ticket hoarding and extreme price gouging – practices that are far from welcome.