Lorgat condemns Cup ticket violence

The controversy has caused a rift between the ICC and local organisers.

BANGALORE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat condemned the violent scenes amid the World Cup ticket fiasco which saw desperate fans baton-charged by police.

Lorgat, keen to rescue what has quickly become a public relations disaster, also apologised for a system that has left thousands of fans with no hope of seeing marquee matches. The controversy, especially at Bangalore, where India play England today, as well as the April 2 final in Mumbai, has caused a rift between the world body and local organisers.

“What is unfortunate is that too few tickets go to the public as a general sale,” admitted Lorgat. “No matter what sort of capacity we provide, the truth is that we won’t have enough seats for the demand that we have on our hands. The rush for the tickets is an indication of the popularity of the 50-over format and the passion fans, especially in India, have for the game of cricket.”

Fans in Bangalore, many of whom had queued overnight in the hope of securing one of 7,000 tickets for the India-England game, were baton-charged by police at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.

“Those are scenes that we would not like to see. None of us would like to see that.”

The capacity of the Bangalore stadium is 38,000, but around 30,000 seats are reserved for various cricket associations, tournament commercial partners and guests.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th 2011.