In harrowing clips that will make you concerned as a cricket fan, a crowd in Hyderabad that had gone to buy tickets for the third India-Australia T20I was subjected to a brutal lathi charge from the local police. This has put the Hyderabad Cricket Association and the BCCI in a bad light.
A portion of tickets set aside to be sold offline was opened at 10 AM Thursday morning at the Gymkhana ground in Secunderabad. Fans had lined up from 10 PM on the previous night to get a hold of a ticket for Sunday’s game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Fans waited for 12 hours to get tickets
However, chaos ensued at the ticket counter as over a thousand fans aggregated to buy a few hundred tickets.
When the ticket sale began at the counter around 10 am, the fans, who stood in the long queue, rushed towards gates, resulting in people pushing each other. The police present at the gate tried to disperse the crowd. But with the fans going out of control, the police resorted to physical violence on the fans.
This resulted in injuries to the fans; some injuries were so severe that some people had to be taken to hospital immediately while a few police personnel too sustained injuries!
Here are few shocking videos that have emerged from the location:
#Hyderabad – Poor planning? Situation at Gymkhana grounds (Secunderabad) where large crowds gathered to buy #IndiavsAustralia match tickets.Lathi charge,people fainting,reportedly 20 injured and some shifted to hospital. No deaths-Jt. CP special branch. #T20WorldCup2022 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/xmUWVTm2RB
— Rishika Sadam (@RishikaSadam) September 22, 2022
#Hyderabad– Absolute chaos at Gymkhana grounds after thousands reach spot to buy offline tickets for #IndiavsAustralia match. Police force brought in to control crowd, lathi charge done. Reportedly 20 people injured. #Paytm opened counter to sell tickets. #T20WorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/5IOReEXB2K
— Rishika Sadam (@RishikaSadam) September 22, 2022
This is very horrible, you call us early in the morning for tickets just 2 days before match and now this happens.@KTRTRS@VSrinivasGoud @DonitaJose#Hyderabad#HyderabadCricketAssociation #hyderabadpolice #INDvsAUS #INDvsAUST20 @C4CRICVENKATESH @allaboutcric_ pic.twitter.com/I1pIfwpZ2t
— Prince (@urstrulyharish1) September 22, 2022
Lathicharge at Gymkhana Grounds.for Cticket Match Tickets in #Hyderabad T20I match at Gymkhana Grounds, Secunderabad, several people injured..In Police Kitty Charge & stampaid. pic.twitter.com/BBR0UXLp5M
— K. N. Hari (@KNHari9) September 22, 2022
Mismanagement, poor planning you call it anything but they had to go through lathicharge, stampede and pathetic scenes at Gymkhana Grounds when they wanted to buy tickets for #Cricket Match to be held at Uppal Stadium #Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/kWmSJUH7bt
— Nellutla Kavitha (@iamKavithaRao) September 22, 2022
The fans had been waiting for hours were left frustrated with the delay in the commencement of the sale. Meanwhile, a few fans who got their hands on the tickets, rued that they could not get the desired tickets. “They were giving only tickets of Rs 850 and 1200. But we wanted tickets to other galleries but they said they were not available. So, we bought whatever was available. We can’t go back empty-handed since we waited for so long,” a fan said.
“When we asked for tickets for a particular stand, they said only Rs 850 and Rs 1200 tickets are available. How come HCA released only these many tickets? There is no transparency in it. We demand HCA to explain this,” another angry fan said.
Australia won the first T20I in Mohali by 4 wickets. Cameron Green’s 61 and Matthew Wade’s 45 helped the visitors chase down 209 in the last over. The second T20I is slated for Friday in Nagpur, before the third T20I on Sunday in Hyderabad.
