KARACHI, March 7: Eye-witnesses claimed that some tickets of the first One-day International at the National Stadium Karachi (NSK) were sold in black market by police.

When DCO Karachi, Mir Hussain Ali, was asked to elaborate on it by reporters, he vehemently denied that such was the case. But a number of fans alleged that police had black marketed tickets in the denomination of Rs100.

"I saw a policeman selling Rs100 tickets for as much as Rs500," one fan alleged. Another added: "Some of the policemen managed to get hold of tickets by making requests that their high command had asked for the tickets for the match."

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) this time decided to sell tickets through a computerised network to eliminate the possibility of black marketing. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the chaotic scenes at NSK, an emegency meeting was held on Sunday evening at the Governor's House under the chairmanship of Brig Mohammad Zamin, the principal secretary to Sindh Governor.

The meeting, attended by senior officials of the Police and Pakistan Rangers as well as Zakir Khan, the PCB official who had rushed to the city from Lahore, decided to open booths at five different spots in the city for the sale of Rs100 tickets.

The tickets of the lowest range will be available for sale from 12:00noon to 7:00pm on Monday at Asghar Ali Shah Stadium (Block 'C', North Nazimabad), UBL Sports Complex (Federal 'B' Area), PIA Colony Ground (Sharea Faisal), D.J. College Ground (opposite Bagh-i-Jinnah) and Korangi No 5 Stadium.