Lukewarm response to 3rd ODI between India and Sri Lanka : KCA

Thiruvananthapuram : Ticket sales have not been to the desired level for the third and final One-day International between India and visiting Sri Lanka here on Sunday. India have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, with easy wins in the two previous matches.

The match will be played on Sunday afternoon at the state-of-the-art cricket stadium near the premier IT campus-Technopark, located in the capital city. The newly-appointed joint secretary of the Kerala Cricket Association, Bineesh Kodiyeri said the ticket sales have not come to the desired levels.

“Perhaps the ongoing Sabarimala temple festival season besides the (fact) that peak examination time is fast approaching might be the two factors for there not (being) too enthusiastic ticket sales.

The KCA has done everything and we have made some rearrangements to the seating arrangements to make watching cricket better,” said Bineesh, who is the son of state CPI-M secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who passed away recently.

Both the teams arrived from Kolkata on a chartered flight on Friday evening and at the airport too, the usually seen response to arriving teams was missing, with very few fans turning up to greet them. The rival teams are put up at two different hotels and both teams will be having a practise session later in the day.