Cricket match uncorks fizz in booze biz in city

Hyderabad: The World Cup cricket match between arch rivals-India and Pakistan on Sunday, expectedly generated a lot of interest among millions of cricket crazy fans across the country and the city of Hyderabad was no exception.

Whether Indian soldiers fighting in the Siachen Glacier or Team India players facing the Pakistani team in a cricket match, it turns out to be an issue of patriotism. People do ensure that they take time to sit before the television to encourage and pray for the Team India to win.

In Greater Hyderabad limits, cricket crazy lovers planned their schedule to watch the match with family members, friends, near and dear ones and further added huge business to the liquor and other businesses in the city.

Bars, pubs do brisk business

The cricket match between the arch-rivals, India and Pakistan brought in a huge business to clubs, pubs, bars and restaurants, wine shops, bakeries and supermarkets.

Since for the match was scheduled on Sunday, Hyderabadis in advance prepared their schedule on how to spend the day from 3 pm to 10 pm.

They started booking tables in pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants and accordingly to satisfy their customers and visitors many of the pubs made arrangements with big screens to watch the live cricket fight.

Consequently,liquor sales registered a hike of 20 to 30 per cent. Also managements of pubs, bars and restaurants stored additional liquor stocks to meet the increased demand on the match day.

People store liquor for the day

Statistics reveal that the sales on Sunday during the cricket match between India and Pakistan hiked for more than 10 per cent at liquor vends. According to B Venkateshwar Rao, President, Telangana Wines Dealers Association, the average per day turnover of an outlet in Hyderabad is estimated to be Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 lakh.

In an outlet 150-160 cases of all brands of beers were sold out with an increase of more than 10 per cent due to the cricket fever in addition to the Sunday and summer day conditions.

However, he opined that wine shops did less business in comparison with the pubs and bars for many reasons. Due to the seating arrangements and procuring of the stock in huge quantity the pubs and bars over performed their liquor sales.

In addition, due to the scarcity of water the liquor companies produced less stock and allotted the quota system to the roughly 400 dealers in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits and around 2,400 wine dealers across the Telangana.

Due to which they have not met demands of the public and supply the liquor to them. Hyderabad City outskirts registered maximum sales in addition to the bottle sales of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).

Bakeries also have good sales

Apart from liquor sales in pubs and bars, the cricket match also fetched good business for the bakeries, supermarkets and coffee shops in Greater Hyderabad region. People indulged in buying the things due to which queue lines were formed at the spots since morning.

Bakery items, cool drinks and ice creams sold in huge quantities on the day as the cricket fans loved to watch the match by tasting the snacks and cool drinks to neutralise the summer heat in addition to the heat emanated from the match ground to the match viewers on television.