Organisers devising ways to bring crowd for non-India matches

New Delhi:

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is mulling various avenues to bring in spectators during the non-India matches during next year's World Cup, informed tournament director and BCCI's chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty.

"There are only six matches featuring India at the group league. We want to ensure that spectators come for the non-India matches also. The real challenge will be to bring in crowd during these matches.

"We are thinking about throwing the gates open for school and college students," Shetty told the mediapersons during a promotional event organised by the official broadcasters ESPN.

He added that although three of the renovated stadiums -- Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Wankhede in Mumbai and MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai will have number of seats reduced but there won't be any compromise in spectators' safety and security.

"We have decided that there won't be any compromise on spectators' facilities, media facilities as well as broadcasters' facilities."

Shetty further added, "Since Government of India supported the bid for hosting the World Cup, there has been relaxation on multiple-entry visa for teams as well as supporters."

ICC's chief executive Haroon Lorgat said that they have made it a point to ensure that ticket prices are affordable.

"Our president Sharad Pawar told us specifically that ticket prices should be affordable so that school and college students can come and enjoy the matches," Lorgat said.