Sachin's 200th Test: 19 million hits in first hour sent ticket website KyaZoonga.com for a toss
Online ticket website KyaZoonga.com crashed as fans seeking tickets for Sachin Tendulkar's 200th and final Test match were left in the lurch on Monday. Only 6000 tickets in the 32,000-capacity Wankhede Stadium are available to the public
India's 'internet' generation were left in the lurch when the website selling tickets for Sachin Tendulkar's 200th and final Test at the Wankhede Stadium from November 14 crashed in the very first hour when sales went online at 11 am on Monday. The website KyaZoonga.com was unable to respond to the massive online requests and according to its owner Neetu Bhatia, the site got 19 million hits for a paltry 6000 tickets available for the public. Attempts to open the site during the afternoon did not prove successful as well.
Till late on Monday evening, the website was slow and Bhatia told NDTV the problem will be fixed "in a couple of hours." Fans can only buy tickets online. KyaZoonga.com is the official ticket partner for the second India versus West Indies Test in Mumbai from November 14.
Apart from digital concerns, there was chaos at the Mumbai Cricket Association office at the Wankhede Stadium today as well as over 5000 fans gathered to purchase tickets. Fans began creating a commotion when they were told that tickets would only be sold online. However, the crowd was disbursed after police used force. Fans had come from all across Maharashtra and neighbouring states as well.
Kolhapur's Narayan Dev Gautam was one of the thousands of fans who have travelled to Mumbai to buy a ticket. "I've come from Kolhapur, and I have been waiting since yesterday morning, I haven't had anything to eat so far. We were told the ticket counters here (at Wankhede Stadium) would open at 8:30 am, but nothing of that sort happened. I have come only to watch Sachin, I wanted only two tickets", Narayan told NDTV.
MCA had earlier issued a statement that the online ticket sales for Tendulkar's 200th Test in Mumbai would start from Monday. Around 3,000 tickets will be available for sale, excluding the 1,500 special tickets priced at Rs 10,000. The price category for the online sale is -- Rs 500, Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,500. The Wankhede has the capacity to seat 32,000 people.