DAMBULLA: Sri Lankan police fired teargas to disperse hundreds of fans trying to force their way into a stadium where the home team were playing their fourth One-day International against Australia Wednesday.

About 300 fans tried to force their way into the 18,000-capacity Dambulla stadium after the authorities announced that all tickets had been sold and asked anyone without tickets to leave the area, a police official said.

“We asked them to go, but they tried to break in while some blocked the main road by sitting down,” said a police official in Dambulla, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Colombo.

“The situation was quickly brought under control,” added the official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

There were also chaotic scenes during the third ODI at the same venue on Sunday when fans without tickets broke through barricades and entered the stadium en masse, dislodging thousands of ticket-holders from their seats.

Sri Lankans are cricket-crazy, but interest in the game has soared to new heights since Angelo Mathews and his team recorded a historic whitewash in their recent three-match Test series against Australia.

Published in Dawn September 1st, 2016