Bajan in 5 blog

"WI" can buy via "E" (WICB joins the 21st Century)

Fans of West Indies cricket now have the option to purchase tickets online to West Indies cricket games played at venues such as Kensington Oval (pictured above)  Photo by Lauriston Streekes

Well another item regarding West Indies cricket can be taken off the list….online ticket purchases. For many years sporting fans in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and Canada have been able to purchase tickets online to their favourite sporting events from the comfort of their home. After the purchase a confirmation code is received and sometimes a barcode to printout. On game day the ticket purchaser goes to the appropriate ticket booth section at the stadium, provides their identification and their confirmation code (if needed) receives their ticket and then proceeds to enter the stadium to enjoy the game.

Alas, this ease of ticket purchasing was only something we in the Caribbean had experienced once. That was for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 tournament. Outside of that event, the main form of ticket purchasing involved going to your local ticket office in person and the subsequent long wait in line. As if that was not a big enough inconvenience there were times when an announcement was made that tickets would be on sale a particular day and fans go to the ticket office that day or the day after even, then to be told that tickets are not yet available for sale!

Sometimes a phone call prior to the trek down to the ticket office did not yield any more reliable information. In all honesty, prior to this new addition by the West Indies Cricket Board it was much easier, more convenient and less stressful for someone living in Barbados to purchase a ticket to an NBA game in Miami than it was to purchase a ticket to a cricket match right here in Barbados!

The NBA ticket could be purchased online and on the day of the game the individual goes to the arena, presents the required documents, signs their receipt and voila….they receive their ticket. The average process of collecting the ticket at the stadium takes around two to three minutes. When added to the time it takes to purchase the ticket online (on average five to ten minutes depending on availability of seating arrangements) this is a grand total of around ten to fifteen minutes. This is compared with waits usually of more than half an hour in line at the ticket booth at Kensington Oval.

So congratulations are in line for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for this initiative and hopefully the system they have in place will work efficiently and the feedback received would be good.

The WICB’s online ticketing portal can be found at: 

https://www.eticketing.co.uk/windiescricket/default.aspx