No fake tickets in IPL final: Cricket South Africa

Cricket South Africa has dismissed allegations that the final of the Indian Premier League at the Wanderers in Johannesburg had been overcrowded due to sale of fake tickets.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has dismissed allegations that the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday had been overcrowded due to sale of fake tickets.

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CSA said in a statement that its investigation followed a newspaper article on Monday which quoted the stadium's CEO, Alan Khourie, as stating that the stadium had been dangerously overcrowded for the final because of the use of fake tickets.

The investigation findings were released on Wednesday by CSA CEO, Gerald Majola, who said the ticketing and access control systems at the final were provided by national ticket outlet Computicket and CSA to the stadium respectively.

Majola said: "In 2003, CSA implemented an access control system at all major cricket venues through South Africa. This system has been upgraded since then, and we are very proud to say that we are the only sporting body in South Africa with such a comprehensive and effective access control system.

"Computicket managed to recover the so-called 'fraudulent' tickets, to which the article referred, from the Liberty Life Wanderers Cricket Stadium - totalling 327 tickets. On checking these tickets it was discovered that 177 tickets were stolen from Computicket, 66 tickets were stolen from those allocated to the stadium and 144 were actually tickets for the semi-final."

Majola said the official attendance at the stadium for the DLF IPL final was 25,418 as recorded by the access control system: "If the stadium did in fact have more spectators than this, these patrons would have had to access the stadium via entrances not controlled by the access control system.

"CSA's investigation shows that if there was overcrowding, it could not have been caused by the use of fraudulent tickets. Illegal access could only have been gained through entrances outside of the access control system and these entrances fall under the control and jurisdiction of the stadium management."

The stadium is managed by the Gauteng Cricket Board, of which Khourie is the head.