Tickets duplication of India-Australia cricket match comes to light
PANJIM, OCT 28
In a stark reminder of the massive 2001 ticket scam, cricket lovers appear to have fallen prey to yet another ticket duplication racket at the recently cancelled one-day international match between India and Australia at Fatorda.
Herald is in possession of a photocopy of two sets of entry documents where one is a complimentary pass and the other a ticket priced at Rs 2,500. The location shown on both is south upper, the gate number shown is 3, seat number is same F-004. However, only the serial number differs. The complimentary pass bears serial number 32639 while the priced ticket has 09149 as its serial number. On the back of the ticket as well as the complimentary pass, a computer chip is pasted.
The second ticket also bears the position, south upper, the same; the seat number F-0028 is the same, the gate number is identical but the serial number differs. The complimentary pass has 32663 as its serial number while the priced ticket has 09173 as its number.
Despite claim by the organisers that bar code system was used, owners of both the documents could enter the stadium without a hitch.
According to GCA, the capacity of Pandit Jawaharlal Stadium, Fatorda is 25,815 but only 9,180 tickets were sold to the public as 14,320 were complimentary passes while 1,915 seats were given as official passes to GCA members.
The GCA had awarded the contract to print tickets to a Pune-based company as part of its efforts to avoid duplication and a scanner that used radio frequency for identification was put in service to grant access to the stadium.
Expressing surprise over the discovery of duplicate tickets, GCA Secretary Prasad Fatarpekar stated that the GCA had not allowed excess spectators in the stadium. What was even more shocking was that the tickets seemed to be coming from the same printing agency, he said.
Fatarpekar said “on the day of the match it was not a full capacity crowd. Officials had scanned each and every person through the scanning machine and had found that around 22536 people had entered the stadium”.
Fatarpekar stated, I am glad the issue came to light. It has disturbed us a lot at the Association. There could be an error with the printer and if found, he would be penalized”. Secondly, if someone from our part has played mischief we won’t hesitate to take strict action against him, he added.
Pune printer summoned
The Goa Cricket Association (GCA) has summoned officials of the Pune-based Printer to Goa over the duplication of tickets for the cancelled one-day cricket match between India and Australia.
“We have written to the printer asking him to come down and clarify on the tickets bearing same seat numbers, GCA Secretary, Prasad Fatarpekar said.
GCA has also summoned its executive committee members for an emergency meeting to discuss the issue on Friday. – (HNB)
