February 17, 2006	Friday	Muharram 18, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

KARACHI, Feb 16: Selling tickets for this season’s international cricket matches in the country has become burdensome for the private bank entrusted with the task.

This scribe witnessed gross mismanagement on Thursday at the six designated branches of Bank Alfalah as sale of tickets for Sunday’s final One-day International between Pakistan and India commenced.

Cricket enthusiasts received a severe setback upon knowing that tickets in the denominations of Rs1500 and Rs300 were not available at any of the branches despite being advertised in the media.

The second bad news was that the windows at the banks did not open at 9.30am, according to eyewitnesses who were made to wait in long queues. The situation further worsened when shutters were put down after a couple of hours of opening.

The hapless staffers of the financial institution could do nothing to bring relief to the masses since the entire operation was masterminded by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), who had ‘misinformed’ the general public through advertisements on Wednesday that the match tickets would be available at 15 branches.

According to bank officials, the tickets were not provided to the six branches on time by the PCB. Moreover, the number of tickets available was well below the targeted figure.

Those who were lucky enough to reach the windows got either one or two tickets each while the rest were chased away by the long arm of law.

Some of the agitated fans reportedly vent their feelings by damaging the glass walls of the bank’s Sharea Faisal branch.

Despite repeated efforts, the exact number of tickets sold on Thursday could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report, but one can sense it was only a handful.

With tickets in the denomination of Rs2500 already declared ‘sold out’ by a top cricket board official several days ago, manager of one of bank’s branches purportedly told a client that he would be available to arrange for the highest denomination tickets.

According to details, the said manager reportedly informed his client that a senior PCB official was willing to supply Rs2500 tickets at a startling rate of Rs5500 per ticket.

Pakistan’s series defeat in Multan on Thursday could force a majority of city’s cricket fans to stay home. But such has been the demand for tickets that people are willing to go through the hassle of purchasing them despite knowing that it’s going to be an inconsequential match.