The much-awaited 2015 Cricket World Cup will begin in less than a month in Australia and New Zealand -- countries that hosted the event in 1992 in which Pakistan won the finals. Pakistani cricket fans have pleasant memories of those days when their team emerged from among those lowest on the points chart and made a remarkable come-back.

Now once again hopes are high and cricket fever is slowly gripping the nation. While a large number of cricket enthusiasts are buying new TV sets, making arrangements to power these during load-shedding hours and subscribing to high-speed mobile internet packages to watch matches on the go, there are those also intending to travel to the land where the action is.

The number of these aspiring to travel to watch the world cup is reasonably high but it is unlikely that most of them will be able to make the journey for various reasons. But those who will be departing shortly are looking forward to a fun-filled time.

Maliha Zia is one such lucky cricket fan who will be in Adelaide, Australia on February 15 to watch the pool match between Pakistan and India. She tells TNS she is going with her husband and that they had planned it well in advance. The visas were applied accordingly and they received them within five weeks.

Zia says they bought air tickets quite early and that was why they cost them around Rs 1,30,000 each. The prices are increasing with every passing day. It is the first time she is travelling to watch the cricket world cup and one major reason for this is that Australia and New Zealand are her dream destinations. Her husband had gone to watch the 20-20 World Cup and it was he who has inspired her to experience this. Zia says their plans are not finalised yet and they may spend time travelling across the two countries and return in March.

Not everybody wants to travel with the family. Some are planning to be part of a group. One such person is Arshad M. Tayebaly, Senior Partner at Mohsin Tayebaly & Company -- a law firm based in Karachi. The group comprises six to seven lawyers who have attended all the cricket world cups from 1999 onwards. All these lawyers are avid cricket enthusiasts and would not miss a chance like this.

Tayebaly tells TNS that they are yet to apply for their visas which they will hopefully get within four weeks. The group intends to arrive in Australia during the final round of the tournament (around March 21) when the quarter-finals would be played and stay there to watch the semi-finals and the final match. As they will be travelling during the peak days of the tournament, the quotes for air tickets that they have received are quite high. A seat in economy class is costing them Rs 2,25,000 and that in business class not less than Rs 4,60,000.

Tayebaly was approached recently by many people who had no idea about who to go to for guidance or facilitation in case they wanted to see the world cup matches. There was very little or no advertisement by travel agents, sports promotion bodies, tour operators etc. which he thinks was quite strange.

While there are serious cricket fans who want to enjoy this privilege, there are others who are just taking a chance to secure an Australian visa. There are people who have strong financial backgrounds and international travel history but they cannot cite a convincing "purpose of visit" in their visa application forms, says Shahid Ghani, proprietor of Ghani Associates -- a travel advisory firm based in Lahore. This time they do not face this problem because they have the excuse of world cup.

Ghani says he has helped three applicants submit their visa forms in the last week, who are dying to be there. "They wanted to see the pool match between Pakistan and India but will miss it as tickets of this match were sold out within 12 minutes of their being put on sale," he adds.

He says his applicants could only buy the tickets of the matches between Pakistan and Zimbabwe, and Pakistan and UAE and attach these with their visa forms as per the Australian High Commission’s requirement. The tickets of all other matches in which Pakistan was playing were already sold.

TNS tried to have an estimation of the number of Pakistani cricket fans who had applied for visa for travelling for this purpose but the figures were not available. Faizan Haq, Media Liaison Officer at Australian High Commission, Islamabad cites a reason. He says there is no separate category for the world cup and people travelling to Australia from January 6-April 5 will get New Zealand’s visa on entry. Therefore, he says, the high commission cannot provide any such figure. Visas already issued or being issued under different categories are also valid for this purpose.

On any facilitation in this regard, Haq says, the visas are being processed as per routine and only the attested copies of passports and other required documents are being accepted. The applicants do not have to submit their passports with the high commission. They can track the status of their visa applications online. Once the visa is issued, it is available in the form of machine-readable paper and there is no need to put a label on the passport. "Entry stamp is marked on the passport on arrival," Haq adds.

No doubt it is difficult to have the exact numbers, but an approximate idea of the situation can be obtained from the accredited travel agents nominated by ICC in Pakistan. In the words of Jameel Sakrani, Director of Super Travels -- one of the only two nominees of ICC in the country -- the response is far less than satisfactory. So far, he says, they have been able to accommodate around 90 serious applicants only whereas the number of queries they received was close to 500.

Sakrani says that no club, sport promotion body, bank or corporation had contacted them for the purpose and this lukewarm response may be due to the overall economic slump and gloom prevailing in the country. On the other hand, he says, a large number of people were interested only in getting the Australian visas and were ready to spend lakhs of rupees to ensure this. "There was one applicant who said he wanted to go to see the fixture between Pakistan and West Indies. But when I asked him to tell me the names of any four West Indian players he was blank," he says.

According to him, they do not accommodate such applicants for two reasons: first to maintain the credibility they enjoy as service providers and second to save these applicants from financial losses as sports packages are non-refundable. "If the visa is rejected they lose this money."

Sakrani’s company is offering a range of ICC-approved packages to suit different needs. For example, there are short term match ticket, travel and accommodation packages as well as long-term packages. For those who are managing their ticket, there is a $600 package that covers two match tickets, hotel accommodation and ground transportation. A 13-day package costs Rs 2,50,000 to Rs 3,00,000 and covers air ticket from Pakistan to Australia, hotel accommodation, airport transfers, match tickets etc. There are different routes available but people prefer to travel by Emirates via Dubai which is a 16-hour journey, he adds. The other routes, he adds, are via Dubai-Bangkok, Dubai-Singapore, Dubai-Hong Kong, Dubai-Colombo, from Qatar to Perth and so on.

Sakrani fears the terror incidents in Sydney and Paris might have an impact on the visa processing by Australian High Commission. "In the final count," he says, "the number of Pakistanis fans travelling to Australia could be a fraction of the around 8,500 cricket fans going there from India."