Need IPL ticket? Get Lock Nagar residents to queue up for you

On the day ticket sales for IPL matches begin, groups of men residing in Navalar Nagar (also known as Lock Nagar), Triplicane, bring their wives and children to stand in the long queue outside ticket booths at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in an avant-garde approach to earning a steady income.

Charging Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 depending on the demand for IPL tickets, over 100 residents from Lock Nagar - aged between 18 to 65 - line up outside the ticket booths on Victoria Hostel road, to procure tickets for fans desperate to watch the game.

“The booth opened at 11 am for one match, and at 8:45 am for three others but we stand in the queue from 5 am. To avoid the hassle of leaving in the morning, I come here in the night itself,” said 22-year-old Mani (name changed), who brings a blanket with him to sleep on the road. “It’s no big deal, instead of sleeping at home, I sleep here,” he added. Out of 100 people standing in the queue in the early hours, only 30 are cricket fans, Mani added.

Since the maximum tickets a person can purchase in the booth is two, these men from Lock Nagar bring their wives and adult children to stand with them. Extending his services, a middle-aged man even delivers tickets at the doorstep of fans at an additional charge of Rs 500.

Considering four matches have taken place at MA Chidambaram Stadium, it is possible that this 100-strong troupe of ‘queue-standers’ from Lock Nagar could have raked in a collective amount of Rs 4 - 8 lakh.

Suresh, an avid match-goer, said, “I went the first day to get tickets. Then I got the number of the

queue-standers and now I get my tickets from them. Even my friends do that now - we don’t mind paying extra as we can save time.”

“IPL tickets get sold out within 4-7 hours on the first day even though they are sold up to three days over the counter,” said Dr Baba from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. “The total number of seats in the stadium is 39,000. Considering several thousands of tickets are reserved for sponsors, VIPs, MCC, online bookings, etc, less than 24,000 are left for counter sales,” he added.