20 March 2004	Saturday	28 Muharram 1425

LAHORE, March 19: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday has cancelled booking of seats for Pakistanis through Internet in order to accomodate Indians cricket fans who are pouring into the provincial metropolis to witness the historic ODI.

Unlike Wednesday, no long queues were seen in front of booths at Qadhafi Stadium as tickets for the March 24 One-day International went on sale. The tickets in the price range of Rs 1500, Rs 1200, Rs800 and Rs 500 were sold in a relatively smooth manner, but the demand for low-priced tickets of Rs 100 and Rs 150 available at Bank Alfalah branches, remained high.

A large number of buyers had to wait for hours for the start of tickets' sale, which was scheduled to start at 3 pm only to see it stopped within half an hour at most of the branches.

The seating capacity for general public in the stadium has greatly shrunk after Raja and Abdul Qadir enclosures have been converted into VIP enclosures, leaving them only Saeed Anwar and Sarfraz Nawaz enclosures to seat themselves.

The booths at Qadhafi Stadium did not sell more than three tickets a buyer except women who were sold five tickets apiece under the declared policy. There were also reports of fake tickets sale in black market. A buyer told he bought two tickets bearing same number, C-25 (Wasim Akram enclosure).