AHMEDABAD (TIP)- Cricket fever has gripped Ahmedabad ahead of Saturday’s World Cup group stage clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan and a visit to the hospitals near the venue of the match in the western Indian city clearly shows the degree of excitement. Quite a few of the hospitals have seen a sudden influx of patients booked in for check-ups involving a night’s stay to coincide with the most anticipated match of the World Cup.
Several doctors told local media the rush for check-up ‘packages’ was an ingenious way to find affordable accommodation as hotel costs have soared up to 20 fold ahead of the match.
“We have come across some cases of people coming to watch the India-Pakistan match also taking an appointment for health check-ups and staying in hospitals,” said Tushar Patel, president of the Ahmedabad Medical Association.
The Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association has discouraged its members from accommodating such fans. “We have asked our members not to entertain such requests. Hospitals are not meant for non-patients,” its president Bharat Gadhavi said. The first batch of tickets for Saturday’s game were sold out within an hour of going on sale in August, prompting BCCI to release another 14,000 earlier this month.
Ahmedabad resident Hemish Patel and his friends, after several days of failed attempts, grabbed four tickets, each costing Rs 6,000.
“We logged into the site with multiple devices,” he said. “We constantly kept on refreshing the site and were able to book within 10 minutes after the sale of tickets began.”
Patel was one of the lucky few. Tickets are fetching up to 25 times face value on resale and city police arrested four youths on Tuesday for selling fakes.
Airfare has surged up to four times and Indian Railways will run a pair of super fast trains linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Source: Reuters