The then Indian skipper Virender Sehwag and his West Indies counterpart Darren Sammy during the toss of the last ODI played in Cuttack in November 2011

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 29: Cricket lovers get online to book your seat for a ringside view of the one-day clash between M.S. Dhoni’s Team India and the Aussies at Barabati Stadium on October 26.

The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) has decided to introduce online sale of tickets for the India-Australia tie in Cuttack. The OCA will sell online 4,500 of the 20,350 tickets through Ticketgenie Solutions, a private company.

“The sale will begin from October 1. This will help cricket lovers from across the state as they need not come to the stadium for tickets,” said OCA secretary Asirbad Behera.

This move comes after the OCA had failed to sell tickets from its Bhubaneswar counter for the ODI between India and West Indies in November 2011. That was the last time Cuttack had hosted an international cricket match. Sources in the OCA said that 7,000 tickets were to be sold in Bhubaneswar, but only 700 cricket lovers had responded.

“After the lukewarm response we have decided to sell tickets online,” said an OCA official.

In another development, the OCA authorities have also decided to use barcode on the tickets to prevent duplication and illegal entry into the stadium.

“As many as 90 ticket validators, along with 40 handheld scanners, would be used to scan tickets with barcodes at the stadium gates,” added Behera.

This is being done to prevent chaos that had gripped the stadium last time when many spectators had entered the stadium illegally.

This apart, OCA has decided to double the number of CCTVs to monitor crowd movement both inside and outside the stadium.

The sale of tickets for general public would start from October 23 at separate counters of Punjab National Bank. While one person is entitled to purchase two tickets, the entire process would be done under the surveillance of CCTV.

The OCA authorities have decided to raise the price of tickets for the match. A ticket for gallery numbers 1,2,3 and 4 has been increased to Rs 500 from Rs 400. Similarly, a ticket for the special enclosure would cost Rs 2,000, which is rise of Rs 500 from last time. Spectators intending to view the match from the corporate box and the pavilion will have to shell out more than what they did for India-West Indies match.