Since early morning Wednesday, they started to throng the Bangabandhu National Stadium area counting their lucky stars for one possible ticket.

Many of them were rewarded for their trouble and found the eastern and western gallery tickets in black market for the expected nail-biting quarter-final match between India and Australia. But prices were many times higher than the normal rate.

``I couldn't manage a ticket for the match earlier. But I was optimistic that I'll have one if I walk around the stadium before the match,'' said Arifur Rahman, a student of Dhaka College, who was among the lucky ones able to manage a ticket in black market.

Arif, a blind supporter of the India team, specially of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, didn't want to miss the match at any cost. But police said many students like Arif were themselves engaged in ticket black marketing this time.

``It's a new phenomenon. Usually an organised group around the stadium were engaged in such crimes. But this time students were also engaged in black marketing,'' said a police official. The official said he was surprised to find many students among the people arrested during crackdown against the black-marketeers. ``They did it to make a few fast bucks,'' he added.

The BCB on Tuesday made an announcement of the tickets of all the matches of the Wills Cup were sold out. BCB President Saber Hossain Chowdhury also advised people not to come to the stadium without having any ticket.

When hundreds of people thronged the stadium Wednesday morning to manage a ticket in black market, thousands of others were seen waiting in long queues to enter the stadium since the morning although the gates opened at noon.

Many of the enthusiastic spectators were carrying drums, flute, national flags of mainly India and funny masks. A good number of young crowd was seen wearing T-shirts with Indian tri-colour. The 40,000-capacity stadium was not only packed, but overflowing with spectators.

Sumon, in his late teens, was among the many who believed that the number of tickets released was much higher than the actual capacity of the stadium.

``Look, hundreds of people are also standing on the passage leading to the galleries. Had the number of tickets released been equal to the actual capacity, this would not have happened,'' said Sadia who had come to watch the batting of her favourite Sachin.

The crowd inside the stadium increased after the Indian batting as many vendors collected used tickets from the galleries and sold those outside the stadium.

There is a rule of re-entry with fresh pass, but the personnel managing the gates were found reluctant to enforce it due to obvious reasons.