India vs England: Crowds throng Chepauk for tickets, ignore social distancing norms

Chennai, Feb 11: Ignoring all social distancing norms, the city's cricket-loving people on Thursday thronged the MA Chidambaram Stadium to collect their tickets for the upcoming second Test between India and England, resulting in chaos and confusion.

Although all ticket sales took place online, fans were required to pick their physical tickets from the stadium.

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) has allowed a 50 per cent crowd for the second India-England Test, marking entry of spectators for a sporting event in the country after nearly a year.

Throughout Thursday, social media was abuzz with reports about long queues outside the stadium and lack of social distancing by the crowds, but a TNCA official said things were sorted out after initial confusion.

"The TNCA had announced that tickets booked online for the second Test could be redeemed from February 11. However, they seem to have misunderstood it and came to the stadium resulting in crowds and confusion," the TNCA official told PTI.

The official also said the issuing of tickets would be smoother on Friday. "Insane crowd at Chepauk for the retrieval of physical tickets. Friends standing in queue for the last couple of hours & the crowd hasn't moved an inch," a Twitter user posted.

Amid the blatant breach of social distancing norms, reports also emerged that a person had fainted after waiting in the queue for a long time.

Sources in the city police said that there was a huge crowd, adding the situation was managed well by the police personnel posted there.

Several Twitter users wrote about the confusion and chaos that prevailed around the stadium premises until the authorities brought things under control.

"Had a worst day in my life time, standing more than 6 hours in the que to redemption of my tickets for #INDvsENG test at #chepauk, returned with empty hands along with leg pain and frustration," a twitter user posted.

Hari Saravanan, an ardent fan of the game, said that a large number of people went to the stadium to redeem tickets. “A large number of people came to Chepauk (on Thursday), that's why there was confusion. Most people assumed that they could only redeem the tickets today only but that is not the case," he said.

He said he would be going to the stadium on Friday to redeem his tickets, adding that the authorities had announced that the tickets could be redeemed on Saturday, too.