8.4 Million Ticket Requests Flood In for India-Pakistan World Cup Clash

The scale of cricket's fiercest rivalry has been laid bare by ticket demand for the 2027 Men's Cricket World Cup, with close to 8.4 million applications submitted for the India-Pakistan group match. The game is scheduled for October 10 at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, a venue with a capacity of only around 34,000, meaning roughly 247 requests for every available seat. The same ground will also host the tournament final on November 21, which has itself drawn nearly eight million bids, 7,900,944 to be exact. The World Cup, co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, opens on October 7 with a repeat of the previous final between Australia and India. In total, more than 120 million ticket requests have been received, from close to 2.8 million fans across 193 countries, for the 57-match tournament. The ballot window remains open until November 21, 2026, and places are allocated by ballot rather than first come, first served. The extraordinary demand underlines why the fixture remains the sport's biggest box-office draw, even more than a year before a ball is bowled, and why organisers face an almost impossible task in satisfying fans hoping to be inside the Wanderers for one of world sport's great occasions.