Fans eagerly secure hospital beds in Ahmedabad for the India vs Pakistan cricket match on October 14th, as they find hotel prices to be prohibitively high.
A visit to hospitals near the western Indian city’s match venue vividly describes the heightened excitement surrounding the upcoming India vs Pakistan cricket clash.
BCCI’s Grand Musical Ceremony at Pakistan vs India
Many hospitals have witnessed an unexpected surge in patients seeking check-ups that involve an overnight stay, perfectly timed to coincide with the much-anticipated World Cup match.
Several doctors have confirmed that this rush for unconventional check-up “packages” serves as a clever means to secure affordable accommodation, as hotel prices have soared to up to 20 times their standard rates in the lead-up to the match.
Tushar Patel, the president of the Ahmedabad Medical Association, shared,
“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.”
However, the Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association has discouraged its members from accommodating such fans. Bharat Gadhavi, the association’s president, stated,
“We have asked our members not to entertain such requests. Hospitals are not meant for non-patients.”
The initial batch of tickets for Saturday’s game sold out within an hour when they were released for sale in August. In response, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released an additional 14,000 tickets earlier this month.
Some of these tickets were priced at 6,000 Indian rupees ($72.15). However, tickets are being resold at exorbitant prices, up to 25 times their face value. City police arrested four individuals on Tuesday for attempting to sell counterfeit tickets.
See: ICC World Cup 2023 tickets: Ind vs Pak ticket prices, Booking sites
The Narendra Modi Stadium, with a capacity of 134,000, is the ideal venue for one of cricket’s most intense rivalries. It previously hosted former US President Donald Trump in 2020 and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier this year.
Last, In preparation for the high-profile match, the city has been declared a “no-drone zone” for Saturday, with 11,000 security personnel set to be deployed, according to Ahmedabad police commissioner GS Malik.