Cricket fans struggle to book SRH vs MI tickets in Hyderabad; blame app, allege black market sales

Hyderabad: Several cricket fans who had planned to support Sunrisers Hyderabad—who have an IPL match scheduled at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Uppal, against the Mumbai Indians on April 23—were disappointed when tickets sold out quickly.

Sunrisers Hyderabad opened bookings for their high-stakes clash against Mumbai Indians on Monday evening through the District (Zomato) app. With the unprecedented craze, the tickets sold like hotcakes. However, many fans of SRH were disappointed for not getting confirmation. Some users shared screenshots of their slot in the queue, with one user having more than thousands ahead of them.

Many supporters are dissatisfied since the Uppal stadium’s official capacity is 39,000, with many seats reserved for the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) and club members, sponsors, partners and other commitments.

Many raise suspicions of tickets being sold through illegal means. They turned to social media to vent their outrage.

Below are some of the reactions on X from SRH fans.

“District app is one of the worst. Even when we got our turn to buy the tickets after being in queue for 10 minutes the payment page says try later,” @AVijayreddy2 wrote.

“I can’t see the Rs 750 ticket. Last year was better because we can book tickets from the Bookmyshow app. I think they are selling tickets in black,” wrote @MohammedIfthek1.

“I waited more than two hours at the time of my turn. It was sold out, it’s really disappointing,” wrote @nareshgoud7858.

“I waited for almost four hours in the queue line, then the app kicked me out and no tickets were available under Rs 15,000. I believe it’s a scam to sell premium tickets or black marketing of tickets. Most important thing is that the district is the worst app for ticket booking,” @Agent_Luciferr wrote.

“I tried to book and was in a queue with 90k+ people ahead of me, later when I checked only Rs 16,000 worth tickets were available,” wrote @IndianAbidi.

“Yesterday in the district app, we waited for almost 45 minutes (from 4500) Rs 1,500 tickets were available when we selected them and proceeded further to make payment. It was not successful, after 10 minutes back to queue again (now 1,25,000). Almost 1 hour wasted but no tickets,” wrote @modugula_sai.

“Ticket prices are shooting up like rockets. So, something fishy or always fishy? Hyd mein apan ke stadium mein dekhne ko tikkitaaa nai milrai kyaatobi hai yeh maskharapan,” wrote @MalakpetD.

Some people get more access than others

Speaking to NewsMeter, a representative from the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), on the condition of anonymity, said that the IPL tickets are sold online by the respective franchises through the Zomato District app and Paytm.

“They will share a private link only to his close contacts/sellers on a specific time slot disclosed only to his people in advance. This enables certain people to block the tickets (6 to 10 times the price). Some may be given at par cost. Since there are no complaints, no control on prices or no transparent direct bookings available as of now.”

Sunrisers management gives 3,900 passes to HCA

Elaborating further, he said that links are dynamically triggered and shared as and when wanted by management to only their contacts. When it comes to the complimentary tickets, they are at the discretion of the HCA apex body. “It’s their wish, what they want and how they want them to distribute it. At present, around 10 per cent of the stadium capacity or as many as 3,900 passes, are given to HCA by the Sunrisers and, in turn, HCA supposedly distributes them to its club members and spares some for VVIPs," he said.

All the above are neither controlled nor trackable to the public or journalists. There is no regulatory system in the IPL to control tickets, their prices or the betting done from over-to-over, the HCA representative added.

When NewsMeter tried to reach out to the SRH franchise to verify the procedures followed in the selling of match tickets, they were unavailable for comment, and the article will be updated as and when they respond.