When India play West Indies in Mumbai today for a place in the World Twenty 20 finals, 250 bureaucrats from Maharashtra will be in the stands of the famous Wankhede stadium. For 'free'.


Officials tell NDTV that the tickets are not quite free.


They get them courtesy a four-decade-old agreement between the state government and the Mumbai Cricket Association or MCA.


The government says that in 1974, land for the stadium was allotted to the cricket body and instead of cash, it promised to pay back in free tickets for every international match played at the Wankhede. No one could say for how long the arrangement, already 42 years old, lasts.


"The place where Wankhede is today belongs to the state government. The government had then given the land to the Mumbai Cricket Association. There is an agreement between them where a certain quota of tickets need to be given to the Maharashtra government. That is why 250 tickets have been given...There is a Government Resolution for the distribution also mentioned in the agreement," said Ashish Shelar, a BJP lawmaker, who is also the vice president of the MCA.  


While Maharashtra's top bureaucrat, chief secretary Swadheen Kshatriya has arranged for the free tickets for officials, Shelar said he has "also arranged for 200 tickets for assembly members." That is in his "personal capacity".