1st India-SL ODI sold out

A sellout crowd of 88,000 would turn out at the Eden Gardens in the opening game of the four-match India-Sri Lanka one-day international series in Kolkata on Thursday following massive demand for tickets due to the return of local hero Sourav Ganguly.

The public sale of tickets has been closed with nearly all tickets bought.

"We are left with only about 1,000 tickets, from which we have to meet the quota earmarked for the Indian Cricket Board [BCCI] as also the sponsors," Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) joint secretary Saradindu Pal said on Tuesday.

"The demand for tickets this time was many times more than what we have seen in the last few matches played at the Eden Gardens. Now our situation is so tight that we cannot put up any more tickets for public sale," Pal said.

The Rs 550 and Rs 900 tickets have already been exhausted, while a limited number of those priced at Rs 750 and Rs 1,200 still remain, he said.

The CAB had earlier announced that tickets would go for public sale from Monday. The counters had seen long queues since morning and the number of ticket-seekers soared as the day progressed with the police having a trying time in controlling the situation.

The CAB has will only admit 88,000 spectators reducing the number by 10 per cent taking into account the security aspect.

A CAB official said Ganguly's sparkling form since his comeback into the Indian team had greatly contributed to the demand for tickets.

When Eden Gardens hosted the last ODI against South Africa in November last year, Kolkatans had protested both inside and outside the stadium against the omission of Ganguly from the Indian team.

Coach Greg Chappell and skipper Rahul Dravid, perceived as the men responsible for Ganguly's ouster, were constantly booed by the people as the Indians went down to the Proteas.

Since then Eden has got no international matches with the then Jagmohan Dalmiya-led CAB being at loggerheads with the Sharad Pawar-led BCCI.

The prestigious venue, which hosted the World Cup final in 1987 besides many other key matches, got the February 8 match from the BCCI by default.

Due to a last minute problem, Pune was considered incapable of organising the match. Significantly, the BCCI's decision came a day after Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, leader of the anti-Dalmiya camp, took over as the new President of CAB.