Shikhar Dhawan reacts as Umar Akmal (C) and Sohaib Maqsood (R) appeals for his dismissal successfully during their one-day international cricket match in Asia Cup 2014 in Dhaka March 2, 2014. PHOTO: REUTERS
Tickets for the fierce World Cup clash between rivals India and Pakistan being held on February 16 sold out in just 12 minutes as they went on sale.
“The general tickets were sold out in 12 minutes for the mouth-watering match at the 50,000 plus capacity stadium,” confirmed John Rau, deputy premier of South Australia
Scalpers saw this as an opportunity to claim some extra cash as some were offering tickets for up to $400 which is 20 times the cost of the cheapest adult admission but these can be guaranteed to be sold.
According to Australia’s national public broadcaster, ABC, about 60 cases of scalping have been identified, almost all involving the Pakistan-India match to be held on February 15 in Adelaide, South Australia.
Tickets for the sold-out match have been offered for sale online at 20 times the cost of the cheapest adult admission, for up to $400.
Anti-scalping laws in South Australia prohibit the sale of tickets for more than 10% of their face value.
Further, tournament organisers can cancel tickets without refunds in cases of suspected scalping and have warned that they may be declared void.
CEO of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 organising committee John Harnden said sites like Gumtree (which offers free classified ads from all over Australia) were cooperating with the organisation in removing ticket offers from the site.
"We've tried to act as swiftly as we can whenever we've seen these instances to stop people scalping and, more importantly, to make certain that these are actually legitimate tickets, that there's [not] a fraud going on and someone buys something and it's not actually a ticket at all,” Harnden said.
"We send through the details and they then take them down. I think there's about two or three at the moment that are in the process of getting taken down."
Further, the CEO said they haven’t had any cases to date where people when asked to take down ads have not complied with the request. He added they have put extensive measures in place to stop people being able to buy large numbers of tickets.
Regarding the match between the two neighbouring countries, Harnden said while India and Pakistan are fierce rivals, organisers hoped the atmosphere at each game would be like a "home match for every team".
"The stands for the India-Pakistan game are absolutely going to be packed and I don't think there'll be a spare seat in the house."
"Clearly India versus Pakistan is going to have a very, very large and parochial crowd supporting both sides," he added.
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