Frantic clamour for India-Pakistan tickets

MOHALI, India (AP):

Kuldip Singh has been waiting outside the ticket office of the PCA Stadium for three days straight, ever since his beloved India team beat Australia to set up a World Cup semi-final against Pakistan.

Singh, like thousands of other fans, is desperate to get his hands on a ticket for what the local media is dubbing the Clash of the Titans, or simply 'the final'.

"My budget is 2,500 rupees (US$55, $J4,675) for a ticket,'' the 19-year-old student said. "I have been coming here for the past three days in the hope of getting tickets. Even one ticket will do for me.''

Singh lives locally in Chandigarh. Beside him was Narinder Singh, a 35-year-old sales and marketing executive who has travelled 150 kilometres on the off chance that tickets might suddenly and miraculously become available.

But the Punjab Cricket Associa-tion has maintained for days that the match between the two fierce rivals is sold out.

"I know that tickets are sold out,'' Singh said. "It is only in the hope that someone who has tickets will come by here.''

Willing to pay

He says he will pay up to 5,000 rupees (US$110, J$9,350) for a ticket - nearly three times the average monthly wage in India.

India haven't won the World Cup since 1983 and Kapil Dev, captain of that team which upset the great West Indies lineup in the final at Lord's, is still fêted wherever he goes in India.

On auction website ebay, the latest bidding price for a set of five tickets was 93,250 rupees (US$2087, J$177,395) with another 19 hours remaining until the bidding closes.

And there are reports of a rampant black market, with 500 rupee tickets now fetching up to 20 times that. Black-market dealing is illegal, but the Punjab Cricket Association admits it is helpless to prevent it happening.

"We cannot do anything directly in the case of black-marketing,'' PCA joint secretary GS Walia was quoted as saying. "People came, stood in queues and bought tickets. Now if they sell them to anybody else in (the) black (market), how can we keep a track? It is not under our control.''