A Virat Kohli century (centuries here) can change a lot of things. It can lift a nation’s mood, it can breathe life into a bilateral ODI series that no longer sways public appeal these days, and it can make tickets sell like hot cakes. The initial ticket sale for the Visakhapatnam ODI was cold, making the Andhra Cricket Association deliberate on selling tickets over the counter, having gone fully online this time.
But following Kohli’s hundred in Ranchi on November 30, tickets were sold out in minutes after it went online on December 1 and 3. The price ranged from Rs 1,200 to 18,000, but nothing remained unsold. Y Venkatesh, who is part of Andhra Cricket Association’s Media and Operations team, reveals: “The first phase of tickets went on sale on November 28. The response wasn’t good. But a day before the second phase went on sale, Kohli scored that hundred at Ranchi. That changed everything. All of us know he has an outstanding record here… so when the second and third phase tickets went online, they vanished in minutes.”
His feverish fans cannot wait for the game to start at a venue where he averages 97.83 in seven ODIs. It includes three centuries, a 99 and a 65. Two days before the game, some of them thronged the airport, craning their smartphone cameras to capture him in flesh when he lands. The wait turned longer, as the flight from Raipur got delayed. The security officials, at 2.45, were tired of answering the same question over and over again for the last couple of hours. “When are they landing?” Shot in different dialects and languages. It was not until 6 pm that the flight left Raipur.
The scenes were not quite different at the Raipur Airport. A large irate crowd, those travelling with the Indian team recounted, stopped arguing with the airline officials about delayed flights, and rushed to catch a glimpse of them. As the players took to the escalator, thunderous cheers rang in the airport. From anger to joy, in a Raipur minute, everything changed. Soon, they were on phones telling friends and relatives about how they saw Kohli and co in the flesh. Five minutes later, they were back to haranguing airline officials. Such is the effect of India’s cricketers on the country’s public.