DUBAI – The match between arch-rivals Pakistan and India remains one of thebiggest contests in the world of cricket. To showcase the importance of thegame, their upcoming World Cup match saw more than 400,000 applicants for25,000 seater Old Trafford Stadium.
Former Indian cricketers such as Harbhajan Singh and Sourav Ganguly haveasked India to boycott the matches against Pakistan whereas veterans suchas Chetan Chauhan want India to pressurize ICC and threaten to boycott theentire event.
Due to the rising tensions, the fans want both teams to go head-to-headmore than ever.
The ICC World Cup tournament director, Steve Elworthy, said that the demandfor India-Pakistan match is much more than England-Australia tie or thefinal of the World Cup.
That particular game [India-Pakistan], we had over 400,000 applicants forthe tickets, which is a surprisingly high number. The stadium [OldTrafford] can only hold 25,000 people, which means that a number of peoplewill be left disappointed. This game between both might also break recordsacross the globe for the most watched game.
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Providing a bit of perspective, Elworthy explained:
We received close to 230,000-240,000 applicants for the England-Australiagame whereas for the final, around 260,000-270,000. This helps youunderstand a little better as to how big the Pakistan-India contestactually is; probably the biggest game from a commercial perspective too.
Some BCCI members don’t want India to play Pakistan as a protest to thePulwama incident, which is why the board will hold a meeting tomorrow. Itis expected that BCCI will give ICC an ultimatum which has the potential tobackfire badly.
