KARACHI: The opening day of the third Test between Pakistan and England was strangely under-attended; the stands at the National Stadium were nearly empty, giving the impression that the people of the metropolis were not too excited about the visitors touring the country after a gap of 17 years.

It was hard to believe this was the reason behind the low turnout, and as it turned out, there were some major technical issues with Pakistan Cricket Board’s ticketing system that added to the fans’ excruciating journey to make it to the stadium — which proved a big blow to the overall attendance.

On Saturday, several fans were made to toil under the scorching Karachi heat from stadium entry points to what can be called mobile ticket printing booths.

Most fans are required to walk nearly three to four kilometres from the designated parking areas to the stadium gates before they are allowed to finally settle in their respective enclosures. But having forced to walk back to printing booths — placed nearly two kilometres away — despite having tickets on their smartphones, left fans questioning if they would ever want to visit the stadium again.

“Absolutely humiliating trying to get into the stadium in Karachi,” a fan, named Aleeza Abbasi, tweeted of her experience. “To get to Gate 14, had to get off at gate 5, walk all the way round the stadium to 14 in intense heart, sent back across the road to a @bookmepk van even though we had print outs, got the card tickets.” The fan added she was “laughed at” by personnel designated at one of the complaint desks.

“If this is how international cricket is supposed to return then it’s better to not have any,” another fan, Shoaib Habib, tweeted.

One of the fans, Hamza Farooque, who also had to go through the excruciating experience of getting his tickets printed, said he might not visit the National Stadium again.

“What is the use of online tickets when we have to toil for printouts outside the stadium,” he told Dawn. “I don’t think I’d be going to watch a match here again.”

Similar experiences were reported by the fans during the second Test in Multan as well.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2022