Asia Cup: Full house at hotels and Kandy stadium ahead of India-Pakistan clash

KANDY: There is a lot of excitement among cricket fans, especially the Indians, for the upcoming clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in Asia Cup 2023, but there is a lot of struggle involved for a lot of these die-hard supporters of Men in Blue as tickets are sold out, so are the hotels and accommodation in Kandy, Sri Lanka, where the match is taking place.

India and Pakistan will clash in their highly-anticipated Asia Cup 2023 match on Saturday at Kandy.

The MD of a hotel told ANI that all the rooms are full and they are still receiving inquiries from fans.

"We are happy that cricket is back here. We are getting ready for the match between India and Pakistan. We are still receiving inquiries and started receiving them a month back. Now, we are fully packed. It is an amazing experience to see this after a long while, after the economic crisis and COVID-19," said the MD to ANI.

She said that the hotel is preparing really well to make the experience of their customers a great one.

"We are ready to give them the Indian-style food, just the way they asked us," she said.

Another hotel owner told ANI, "This Asia Cup is a good opportunity for the hotels. During the COVID-19, we faced a lot of losses. But now, our rooms are fully booked and packed. We are still receiving inquiries from people, but unfortunately, we do not have rooms for them. We are giving people discounts on food and liquor. This all is good for our country after the economic crisis and COVID."

Fans are extremely disappointed to miss out on catching the India-Pakistan match live as tickets are sold out.

A fan told ANI. "I just came here to watch the India-Pakistan match from Colombo. But all tickets are sold out. It is really unfortunate, but I have booked tickets for the Sri Lanka-Bangladesh match and I will watch it. All hotels and accommodation are also full. I really wanted to see Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Pakistan pace attack."

Another fan from Canada also missed out on the match due to tickets selling out.

"I came from Canada to watch India versus Pakistan. Tickets are sold out. They are expensive too. Wanted to watch Virat Kohli and Team India. Accommodation is expensive, all hotels are booked, could not find anything," he said.

Pakistan, India and Nepal are in Group A while Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are in Group B. The tournament will follow a hybrid model with Pakistan hosting four matches across two venues and Sri Lanka hosting the remaining games. The six group-stage matches will be followed by the Super Fours beginning September 6.

The final will be played by the top two teams at the end of the Super Fours on September 17 in Colombo.

Indian Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir (travelling reserve).