Poor response to IPL tickets in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR - There is poor response to tickets for the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches to be played in Cuttack in Orissa later this month, an official said Sunday.

There has been lukewarm response, Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) secretary Ashirbad Behera told IANS.

Cuttack, a non-IPL franchisee city, got the chance to host the matches for the first time after the Hyderabad-based franchisee Deccan Chargers picked Barabati Stadium as one of its venues terming it as their “catchment” area.

Deccan Chargers would play against Kings XI Punjab March 19 and Delhi Daredevils March 21 at Barabati, 26 km from here.

“All tickets get sold in a day when we host ODIs but in the case of IPL matches, the response is not as good even when the prices of the tickets have been reduced by more than 30 to 50 percent,” he said.

Behera said as many as 42,000 tickets were to be sold — 21,000 for each match. But only 6,000 tickets had been sold — 5,000 at Cuttack and 1,000 at Bhubaneswar till Saturday.

Seeing the poor response OCA has stopped selling tickets at Bhubaneswar Sunday although it is still selling tickets at Cuttack, he said, adding that about 10,000 tickets were however already sold by OCA franchises across the state.

“The college and school examinations are on in the state and the students and their parents are busy in that. Maybe because of that the response is not as good,” he said.