Students creating ruckus outside Ekana International Stadium on Tuesday (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)

(L) Ticket of the cricket match to be held in the city (R) Notice put up outside the ticket window on Tuesday (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)

People, mostly students, gathered at the Ekana International Stadium on Tuesday (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav) (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)

Chaos ensued when the sale of open tickets began at the Ekana International Stadium at Gomti Nagar on Tuesday morning for the T20 cricket match to be played between India and West Indies on November 6. Over a thousand people had gathered outside the stadium, some since 5 in the morning, to buy tickets for the match.Confusion began when a few local newspapers published a report on students tickets going on sale from Tuesday onwards. Although the news did mention that the student tickets will be on sale at specific schools and colleges, a large number of students, even from neighbouring cities, reached the stadium with their ID cards to buy them. But even after a long wait, when the sale did not begin, the youngsters started creating a ruckus at the stadium and also blocked the busy Shaheed Path, which as it is was crowded with vehicles of people who had come to buy the tickets offline.Students creating ruckus outside Ekana International Stadium on Tuesday (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)Last week, at a high-level meeting of Chetan Chauhan , Sports Minister, UP, with the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) officials and the Ekana stadium administration, it was decided that a student gallery will be opened for students and 1000 tickets will be reserved for a price of Rs 450 for them. It was also decided that those tickets will be put on sale at various colleges and schools in the city.But when the students reached the stadium to buy the tickets, they were told by the stadium officials that there were no tickets being sold on the said date for them. The disappointed and angry students then started creating a ruckus outside the stadium and shouted slogans. They also disrupted traffic on the Shaheed Path where the stadium is located. A few also tried to break the ticket window. To avoid it becoming a major showdown, the police, which has been stationed at the stadium since past one week, stepped in and tried to control them.(L) Ticket of the cricket match to be held in the city (R) Notice put up outside the ticket window on Tuesday (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)Mohit Tiwari, a second-year student, who had come all the way from Barabanki was one of those left disappointed by the news of the tickets not being sold on the day. "I came here after reading in a newspaper that the student gallery tickets will be sold today. But now I am being told that the tickets will now be available only on November 2. I feel cheated by this. Coming all the way from Barabanki just to be told this is a wasted effort," he lamented.Sharing his sentiments was Rahul Verma, a 15-year old school boy, who had come from Hardoi to buy the tickets at a discounted rate. "I had somehow managed a day-off from my school just to get the student gallery tickets. But when I reached here, I found thousands of agitated students standing on the roads and I came to know that tickets will be sold on a later date. It will be hard for me to convince my parents to come here again for the match tickets," said he.People, mostly students, gathered at the Ekana International Stadium on Tuesday (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav) (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)Same was the story of Vinay Pandey, a 19-year-old college student, who had come from Gonda and was thoroughly disappointed. "I had come with my identity proof and college I-card as mentioned in the newspapers to buy the T20 tickets, but when I reached here, I found a notice mentioning that student tickets will go on sale on November 6, on the day of the match. Now, I don’t think I will be able to get the tickets when there’s such a huge demand for it already. I have lost all hopes of watching the India-West Indies match live," he said. A 12-year-old schoolboy, who didn’t wish to be named, came all the way from Matiyari with a relative to buy a ticket. "Aaj school nahi gaya kyunki ticket leni thi. Initially, I came here on October 22, then they changed the date to October 30, and now they say tickets will be available on November 2. Abhi date hi nahi confirmed hai toh main ticket lene kaise aaunga?" he said with a forlorn look.The situation at one point became rather grim when a few students fainted after having waited outside the stadium since early morning. "We were told that the tickets will be on sale from today, so we came here at 6 in the morning. But no stadium official is giving us a definite date about when the student tickets will actually go on sale. The stadium officials are denying giving any information to the newspapers and they are just saying that there will be a camp organized in our schools for student tickets," said a student from a college in the city.— with inputs from Aditya Yadav