Friday, April 1, 2011

Road to the final: Jump the Q


The website Kyazoonga, which has partnered the Indian cricket board to sell tickets online, advertises itself with the tagline 'Jump the Q'. It seems a bit overstated for those who have spent hours waiting at the Mumbai Hockey Association in a queue that coiled and coiled like a giant cobra. Tickets are being handed out at a rate of about two every three minutes. My own tickets (I have got them in my wallet as I write) required just a two minute wait at one of the three counters. At that rate they'd be clearing three persons every two minutes, over twice the speed they're going at, and there would be no coiling queue. However, the line includes many proxies who have inadequate documentation, and everything is held up while phone numbers are verified and credit card numbers confirmed. There were about 150 people in front of me when I got there this morning at 11.30am. The ticket windows had opened early, and the queue was already moving when I arrived. I walked away a little after 3.30pm. At that point there were over 300 people in line behind me. At the pace they're going, the last person already inside the ground at 3.30pm would get his or her ticket at 9.30pm. For those entering later, well, the wait could stretch past midnight.
The counters were originally set to stay open for about 1500 minutes over three days. That would mean about 1000 applicants could be serviced at the pace Kyazoonga and the police have maintained. Since no individual is granted more than 2 tickets, no more than 2000 tickets could have been handed out in the time granted. The remaining 2000 (there were 4000 tickets in all in the online ballot) can't possibly all be taken care of in extra time. The maths is clear: lots of people who have booked tickets to the big game will not get their hands on them.
After my documents were checked, and details entered at the ticket counter, I had to fill in a form for the police providing address, phone number etc; then I was photographed on a cellphone. I wonder if all these records will be of any help if I was to lose my ticket. Something tells me they won't.

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