Asia Cup 2025: Cold response to India-Pakistan match, and there is a reason

While tickets for high-voltage cricket matches between arch-rivals India and Pakistan generally take minutes to disappear from counters, the scenario is totally contrasting ahead of their Asia Cup fixture on Sunday (September 14).

While it’s only days before the first ball is bowled in the game scheduled at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, a large number of tickets have remained unsold, said a Times of India report.

While organisers of major international cricket tournaments, including the World Cup and Champions Trophy, have clubbed India and Pakistan in the same group to earn maximum viewership and revenues, the strategy seems not to be working for this year’s Asia Cup T20 tournament, which kicked off on Tuesday (September 9) with a Group B game between Afghanistan and Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi.

Also read: Asia Cup: Afghanistan thrash Hong Kong by 94 runs in opener

Led by Suryakumar Yadav, India will launch their campaign on Wednesday (September 10) by taking on the UAE in Dubai while Pakistan will kick off their mission against Oman at the same venue on Friday (September 12).

Bulk ticket idea hasn't impressed fans

One of the reasons why tickets have remained unsold is the packaged sale of tickets introduced by the organisers, the report added. For this year’s Asia Cup, fans would be required to buy the tickets in a bundle for all matches of a particular team and not for specific games.

Also read: Asia Cup 2025: Schedule, venues, squads, format, live TV and streaming

The idea behind such a step is to promote matches involving teams such as the UAE, Oman and Hong Kong, but it has not gone down well with many in the cricketing fraternity.

For instance, the package for the matches in Group A, which includes besides India and Pakistan, UAE and Oman, starts from AED 475 (Rs 11,000).

Fans have reportedly demanded the release of single-match tickets closer to the fixture day, said another report. Others have also expressed dismay over the fact that the package excludes the Super Four games and the final, saying the package system would have been beneficial had the knockout matches been a part of it.

Costly ticket prices

Besides, high prices could be another reason that has kept the fans at arm's length. The ticketing portal showed a pair of VIP Suites East seats costing Rs 2.57 lakh. Two Sky Boxes East tickets were priced at Rs 1.67 lakh. Even the Platinum tickets (two) came at over Rs 75,000. Two Ground Lounge tickets cost above Rs 70,000.

Also read: Cricketers can't come, but Pak hockey players allowed to play in India

First India-Pakistan game after Pahalgam attack

The India-Pakistan match will also be played at a time when political relations between the two neighbours have hit a nadir.

While the two sides have still played each other in multilateral tournaments such as the World Cup and Champions Trophy and mostly on neutral venues (India have not travelled to Pakistan even for multilateral tournaments such as Asia Cup and Champions Trophy while Pakistan have come to India for the World Cup), the terror attack in Pahalgam in April and the air skirmishes between the two countries that followed even saw voices emanating from India to boycott Pakistan even in multilateral events.

Also read: Dream11 exits as Team India title sponsor; BCCI hunts for replacement

India cleared cricket team's participation in Asia Cup

In August, the Indian government cleared the national cricket team’s participation in the Asia Cup despite widespread calls to shun the rival team. In July, the India Champions decided against playing their Pakistan counterparts in England more than once, including the semi-final, due to simmering tensions between the two countries.

India and Pakistan are expected to top their group irrespective of the result of their own game and meet once again in the Super Four stage to be played between September 20 and 26. If they clinch the top two positions there too, the arch-rivals could meet for the third time in the final on September 28.

India and Pakistan have met each other 13 times in T20s, with India leading 10-3. The last time Pakistan defeated India in international cricket was in the Super Four stage of Asia Cup 2022, also played in the UAE.