Online booking: 50 denied tickets

Around 50 people who had booked their tickets online for the World Cup final will be disappointed. Debasish Panigrahi reports.

Around 50 people who had booked their tickets online for the World Cup final will be disappointed. They will miss the India take on Sri Lanka at Wankhede stadium on Saturday.

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They were denied tickets because of their “suspicious” background, said sources in the Mumbai crime branch on Friday.

Sources said they had bought the tickets from Internet Protocol addresses that were found to be different from the addresses they had mentioned while booking them.

The crime branch officials then ran a check on their antecedents and found them to be “suspicious”.

“They had failed to satisfy the security requirements, hastening the denial of tickets,” a source from the Mumbai crime branch said, refusing to divulge the domicile of those who were denied tickets.

While joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy confirmed that some persons were found with suspicious background and denied tickets, he refused to give the exact number.

Around 3,200 tickets, meant for the public, were put on sale over the internet after the BCCI stopped the sale of tickets over counters at Wankhede stadium. The decision was taken following the riot-like situations at ticket counters in Bangalore and Nagpur during the World Cup matches.

As per the provision, those who have booked tickets online have to collect the tickets from the BCCI counters. At the time of collection, the claimant will have to show the ICC confirmation downloads (a printout).

The crime branch ran a check on the antecedents of those who had booked tickets online.

For those who had booked tickets from Mumbai, the check was done with help from the local police, and for those who were from outside the city, the crime branch took help of the local police there and double-checked when they came to collect the tickets for the World Cup final.