Cricket Ticket Maze

Getting tickets for an international cricket match in London is no small feat. Up to this point I simply have been unable to accomplish it, due to distance and a lack of organization, as well as an unwillingness to pay insane eBay prices. The ratio of seats to fans is quite small in London. Many of the seats are reserved for members, and there are long waiting lists for membership at both London venues (Lords and the Oval).

Up to this point I've been to two international matches in the U.K., both outside London (Nottingham and Cardiff, to be specific). In both cases it was a fun visit, but the inconvenience and extra hotel costs may have slightly outweighed the savings from not having to pay insane eBay prices, especially now that I'm just a 3-hour train ride from London here in Paris.

For next year, I plan to achieve the incredible and obtain tickets to see India at the Oval, and you have the opportunity to follow my ticket buying journey on this blog, a journey which began today.

It turns out that tickets for India at the Oval go on sale to Surrey CC members on Friday. That's for a test match on August 9-13 (my first choice event). There's also an ODI on September 5. As I said, there are no Surrey memberships available, but if you're willing to loan them 6000 pounds interest-free for 75 years they'll give you great seats.

So what can I do? The general public gets the right to purchase tickets on December 4, but for 25 pounds they offer the chance to purchase tickets online starting on Halloween. This seems like a bit of a scam, but London cricket tickets are mania-inspiring rarities, so I decided to go for it. And since I'm already invested, I think I might as well try to score a seat at the 20/20's they're hosting vs. the West Indies in June. We'll see. So far I've just purchased the right to buy tickets after the members but before the general public. I suspect that actually what I've really purchased is the right to try to buy tickets. They haven't guaranteed that I can actually get them. We'll see at the end of the month whether I can nail down the seats, or whether it's like Lord's, where you buy the tickets up front, and then they figure out who actually gets the tickets - and everyone else gets a refund with no interest.

So far it reminds me of the casino at Monte Carlo, where they charge you money just for admission, but honestly if the price of admission puts you off you really don't belong there, as the admission is tiny compared to the money they could suck away once you go in. By the way, I didn't pay the admission to the casino, which is why I can afford to bet 25 pounds on a shot at cricket tickets.

If you're feeling lucky, details are here.