Mohali: The thin crowd attendance against Australia has prompted the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) to sell tickets of the tie against England starting from Friday at discounted rates to educational institutes and cricket academies.

Low turn out during the October Test, where Sachin Tendulkar became the highest Test scorer in front of near empty stadium was also a concern for the International Cricket Council (ICC).

But this time the PCA is not taking any chance.

"We have very little time for the sale of the tickets and it is not possible to sell tickets through district education departments. So we have decided to issue tickets directly to educational institutes and cricket academies on first-come-first-served basis," PCA joint secretary G.S Walia told sources.

Both the teams will arrive here on Tuesday.

"A representative of these institutions can directly contact us and take the tickets in bulk from us according to their requirements," Walia said.

In order to attract more students, PCA has announced discounted rates for them. Under students' category, ticket for all five days will cost Rs.60 and single-day ticket will be available for Rs.20.

Walia said the step has been taken to encourage more students and budding cricketers to come to the stadium. He also maintained that there has been no change in the price of tickets of other categories.

In the wake of recent Mumbai terror attacks, the second Test of the series will be played under unprecedented security cover.

"There will be three-tier security with around 1000 cops stationed on duty at PCA stadium during all five days. Besides, we will also avail the services of Punjab commandos and intelligence agencies," Jatinder Singh Aulakh, Senior Superintendent of Police told sources..

"100 CCTV cameras have been installed in the stadium and senior officials of Punjab police will be sitting among the spectators in civil clothes to keep an eye on any anti-social element. We have made foolproof security arrangements but keeping all possibilities in mind, a special task force has been formed that will immediately come into action in case of any untoward incident," he added. IANS