Lathicharge at Bangalore stadium for World Cup tickets

Mangalore Today News Network

Bangalore, Feb 24: There was complete chaos at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore this morning after the police lathi-charged thousands of fans who were waiting to buy tickets.

 

The match between India and England will be played on Sunday.

The stadium can accommodate 40,000 people but only 7,000 tickets were up for sale.  Javagal Srinath of the Karnataka Cricket Association said the fiasco this morning could not be helped.  "This is a tradition of Indian cricket...there is nothing new about this," he said, and then went on to joke with reporters about whether they had got tickets for the match.  His tone and comments were grating to many.  "The biggest challenge we faced was the expectation of people...we cannot meet everyone’s expectation...and there’s a limit that we can keep people happy...there is nothing we can do..."

That’s unlikely to be an acceptable explanation for many including the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has on record described ticketing for the World Cup as a PR and management disaster.

Yesterday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) wrote an angry letter to Sharad Pawar, who is the Chairman of the World Cup Central Organising Committee. 

The ICC pointed out that with tickets in very short supply, box office sales could turn into a security nightmare.

It also stressed that tickets bought months in advance online from Kyazoonga, the official ticketing partner for the event, are yet to be delivered. Kyazoonga’s website also crashed yesterday when tickets for the final went on sale.

Further, the ICC has not been given its share of tickets for matches for its international sponsors who’re entitled to complimentary .

 

No irregularities in ticket sales: Srinath

Refuting charges of irregularities in the sale of cricket World Cup tickets, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) secretary Javagal Srinath on Thursday said that it is not possible to please everyone and that unhappy people say all kinds of things.

“There is a limit to what we can do. Beyond that we cannot do anything…unhappy people will say all kinds of things,” Srinath said in a press conference.

Srinath’s statement came amidst reports of police beating up angry fans, who had camped outside Bangalore`s M Chinnaswamy Stadium to buy tickets for Sunday`s World Cup showdown between India and England.


According to some media reports, the fans were livid as just 1000 tickets were sold out of a total of 45,000 tickets, which is the estimated capacity of the Bangalore stadium. There was a rush for tickets owing to the sale of the limited number of tickets.

Denying these charges, Srinath said that 7000 tickets had been sold during the day.

The former Indian fast bowler also said that considering the huge demand for the ticket, the association will also try to get more tickets from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

When asked about the security arrangements for the match, Srinath said that adequate measures had been taken.


“We have taken all necessary precautions. Well will put up a list of dos and donts for everyone soon,” he said.

The India-England clash, which was originally scheduled to take place in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens stadium was moved to Bangalore after Eden failed to get ready in time for the inspection.