The opening match of the Hockey World Cup between India and Pakistan is a total sold out on the net as well as in New Delhi’s retail outlets and fans are complaining they are not getting tickets for the fixture.Sale of tickets for the match began on February 3. Apart from the website these are also available at select outlets of Cafe Coffee Day, Union Bank of India branches and many 24x7 convenience stores.

Shailesh Kumar, a hockey fan, has been running from one outlet to another but s failed to get a ticket so far. “I wanted to buy it online but all tickets were sold. Then I went to several outlets in south Delhi, but didn’t get lucky. I have lost hope now.”

Amit, an employee of CafAc Coffee Day at Mayur Vihar, said, “We have already sold over 200 tickets and very few tickets are left. All the tickets that have been sold are for the general stands. We don’t have any tickets for the covered stands where the dressing rooms are located.”

Tickets for the mega event are priced at Rs. 100 and Rs. 500 for general admission for the group matches. For the VIP stand these are available for Rs. 1000. While an entry into the VVIP stand will cost Rs 5000. Cost of tickets for the final will be 1.5 times the price of the group stage matches. There will be three matches per day and a ticket entitles one to watch all three matches one after the other. One match will be played in the afternoon and two will be held in the evening.

The matches will be played at 4.00 pm, 6.00 pm and 8:00 pm, everyday according to Pakistan standard time. Every team plays the other team every alternate day. The teams that are participating in the event are Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Spain, Germany and England.