More of expense and less of revenue doesn’t serve much of a purpose and that’s the worry of Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) officials, who stated the price of tickets will be cut down for the Mumbai Test match between India and England, starting December 8.
Speaking to Times of India, the MCA joint secretary PV Shetty said since the budget of holding matches by state associations has been trimmed down by the Supreme Court, the pressure mounts on them to make profits as footfalls are relatively less during a Test match.
“This time, we’ve got a limited budget. Anyways, we don’t earn much out of a Test. Hence, we had to consider cost-cutting measures. We normally spend Rs 1.5 crore on catering, but this time we’ve decided to spend around Rs 1 crore on it instead”.
Looking at the crowd in Mohali Test, disappointment surely lures in for the officials with an added worry of facing the same scenario in the next Test at Mumbai.
“Around 1,000 tickets will be distributed to the cricket playing schools of the city (whose team has made it to the quarterfinals of the Harris or Giles Shield), and NGOs for the specially-abled children. We’ll send passes to all the former India cricketers, and top Ranji players, from the city for the game.
“The online sales have been encouraging so far. We’ve already sold 4000 tickets. Our members have picked up around 1,000 tickets. In the coming days, we’ll advertise about the Test in newspapers. We’re sure that people will want to go to the stadium to watch someone like Virat Kohli.”