- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A number of cricket lovers on Thursday (22) were injured in a stamped-like situation in Gymkhana Grounds in Secunderabad in the southern Indian state of Telangana where they had gathered to buy physical tickets for the third and final T20 match between India and Australia scheduled at Rajiv Gandhi International cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday (25).
While many were injured in the chaos, around 20 received blows when police personnel lathi-charged to bring the situation under control.
More than 30,000 fans assembled to get a ticket in the morning after the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) announced the sale of around 3,000 tickets offline at the Gymkhana Grounds, according to Hindustan Times.
DS Chauhan, additional commissioner of police, law and order, said the HCA had not made any prior arrangements at the venue for maintenance of the queue at the counters selling the tickets and hence there was a mad rush with people pushing each other, the report added.
“This led to a stampede-like situation. Some of the people, including a woman, fell unconscious in the melee. We immediately rushed them to a corporate hospital nearby and they are out of danger,” he said.
Additional police personnel were rushed to the venue where they resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd, resulting in more injuries.
Police use mild force as stampede like situation prevailed at Gymkhana grounds, Secunderabad, where tickets are being sold for India-Australia T20 match to be held on 25 Sept in the city, on Thursday. @TheQuint pic.twitter.com/OyxQOPUexW
— Nikhila Henry (@NikhilaHenry) September 22, 2022
“Some police personnel, too, sustained injuries in the attack by the angry mob,” the top police officer said.
Chauhan also said that the queue of the fans trying to buy tickets was more than a kilometre even as the HCA put up only a limited number of tickets.
The report added that people had been visiting the HCA office at Gymkhana Grounds since Wednesday (21) as sale of tickets online got disrupted because of breakdown of servers.
“We shall inquire into the lapses of the HCA and issue notices to the management for questioning,” Chauhan was quoted as saying. He added that stringent action would be taken if there were any lapses.
Telangana state sports minister V Srinivas Goud called for a meeting of the HCA management to discuss smooth sale of tickets.
India lost the first match of the series in Mohali on Tuesday (20) by four wickets while the second match will be played in Nagpur on Friday (23).
