World Cup Adventures

Cricket is my game.

I have become so excited about the Cricket World Cup (only 26+ days away) coming to the Caribbean. I know that for many persons cricket is a side show, especially given the torment we have had to endure from our West Indian team. But I don't care. I hope they do well, and I'm probably their only fan (mild exaggeration), but even if they don't go all the way, I'm just looking forward to good cricket in my back yard, no matter who's playing.

These major events are once-in-a-lifetime occurrences for the Caribbean. So, as expensive as tickets are, I could not allow the World Cup to come and go without me taking in a few matches; in this case, 'a few' equals 3- a warm-up match (WI v Ind), a group match (WI v. Pak), and the semi-final match to be held here in Jamaica.

Because I doubted I'd be able to come up with the cash for the tickets, I was late in ordering my tickets. As a result, when I tried to get the semi-final tickets in November, none were available. But I knew there may be a potential window of opportunity in February (when the first-come first-serve phase of sales came around), and so I hoped for some luck. February 1 came and I was on the cricketworldcup.com website first thing, scouting for tickets. And to my delight, tickets were available! I quickly went about ordering the 4 tickets I needed for the match, and then proceeded to the checkout phase. Of course, there had to be an issue... for some reason, the credit card wasn't being accepted, and when trial after trial after trial failed, I decided to try alternate methods.

I left my office and went to the downtown World Cup ticket office, and on getting to the front of the line I was told, "I'm sorry, there are no tickets for this match." I was devastated... I was also a tad confused. The supervisor there advised all the semi-final ticket seekers that tickets sold out in November... so why was it that when I went online I saw available tickets.

Unfortunately, I can't get into the whole story of what transpired throughout that day. Needless to say, I tried my best to get an explanation as to why tickets were available online, yet the ticket office claimed there were no tickets. I told the office that I checked the online system many times, and they claimed that I just checked it at the right times. It so happens that the 'right times' were every single time I checked. Somebody didn't know what they were doing.

The frustrating part was that I was seeing the tickets, but having credit card trouble. I got a myriad of explanations for the credit card issue, and even more explanations for the lack of tickets at the ticket office. But it all came down to one fundamental issue- none of these people had a clue what was going on. They were all inept and ignorant. It was finally explained to me later in the day that some tickets were being returned by corporate sponsors and thus there were tickets available. I was told that if I got to the ticket office at the 'right times' I'd be in luck. This still didn't explain why there were always tickets available online, but I gave up on that anyway.

Though a tad discouraged, I considered going to the ticket office first thing the next morning. My girlfriend encouraged me to give it one last try, and I did. We were there at 7:50 the next morning, and waited the 15 minutes for the office to open. First ones there. I went in, asked for tickets, and got the same 'no tickets available' story. I conversed amicably with the rep for maybe 15 minutes, explaining to him what I went through the day before.

He checked the system several times, but said he saw no tickets. I told him I checked the system just before I left home and there were tickets online. After the 15 or so minutes, his supervisor came out, clicked the keyboard a few times, and vuala! 4 tickets were available. It was a bit funny to me because:
1. It made no sense to me that these 4 tickets would just magically become available when the supervisor waved her magic wand; and
2. It was interesting to me how much persistence pays. Under normal circumstances, I would have walked out of the office within 3 minutes. But I was so determined, I decided I was gonna talk and vent 'til something happened. And that made the difference between me having 4 tickets and me walking out empty-handed.

But like I said, the World Cup employees suck. They're either poorly trained, or have tough heads, or both. I was so annoyed last night when an official spoke of how they clear their email inbox everyday, knowing that I've sent 3 emails to them and have gotten a response to none of them. But my girlfriend pointed out to me that there's a bit difference between replying to mails and clearing an inbox... I guess the official chose his words carefully.

So anyway, I have my tickets, and I'm so excited. That damn match better be orgasmic! I hope they all are. This weekend I got a little taste of the new Sabina Park by going to watch Jamaica take on Trinidad. The new stand looks great- very modern and stylish. I hope they paint the damn thing though! And the match was good. I had fun.

Let the hype begin! (The pictures were taken at Sabina on Saturday)