TICKETS to the first One-Day match in the ongoing series between Pakistan and India exposed Pakistan Cricket Board’s incompetence to manage even the basic rights. The feeling of discrimination was already there among the Karachiites, and the manner in which PCB officials bungled the sale of tickets has only added to that.
There are people who believe it to be downright mismanagement; there are others who see it as part of some larger conspiracy to frustrate the residents of this city; and there are those who smell a rat in the whole deal and point their finger to the element of corruption. The argument is over the PCB’s novel idea of selling tickets through a private firm for the series. The firm, a well-known cricket web site, had no prior experience of handling such affairs, but was still chosen to do the job. Why? This is what people want to know.
If company officials are to be believed, they agreed to handle the sale of tickets on a “voluntary basis”. Now this is something very interesting, and it is hard to believe that a commercial, profit-oriented entity would do anything without making anything out of it. The issue of patriotism is naturally not involved here. It was a deal between two profit-making organizations, and both had to serve their own interests. Such a claim by the private firm only gives credence to rumours doing the round about the familial ties between the top official of the private firm and the man who took the decision on behalf of the PCB, Ramiz Raja.
Interestingly, Ramiz also does not get paid for being the PCB Chief Executive Officer, which allows him to continue with his assignments as a television commentator, and now he is bringing in his trusted henchmen to do ‘voluntary’ jobs for the Board. Such voluntarism is really beyond the comprehension of lesser mortals.
Regardless of whatever was behind the fiasco, the scenes witnessed on the day were unfortunate, to say the least. A section of around 15,000 potential ticket-buyers clashed with security personnel after an inordinate delay in the sale of tickets. This led to an ugly situation, and in the ensuing melee, scores of people, including women, were hurt as police wielded batons to disperse the agitated crowd.
Angry fans threw stones, flower pots and parts of broken chairs within and outside the stadium. The web site handling the sale of tickets was scheduled to open its booths for the public at 9 in the morning. After a delay of about 90 minutes, the sale began, but it was abruptly terminated after only 25 minutes. A large number of people were chased away and the stadium’s gates were closed on the orders of PCB bosses.
Even when the tickets went on sale the next day through six outlets, the bungling continued. The PCB had announced that one person could not purchase more than five tickets, and that too after showing the national identity card to the competent authority.
But in sharp contrast to the announcement, some ‘favourites’ managed to grab as many as 20 tickets to fleece innocent souls at exorbitant prices.
According to eye-witnesses quoted in the media, the ‘lucky’ ones were aided in their quest for tickets by some PCB officials, the ticketing agency and the law enforcement personnel on duty. Tickets worth Rs800 fetched as much as Rs2200 to these black-marketeers even on that very day, what to talk of the profit margin that must have prevailed on the day of the match.
DCO Karachi Mir Hussain Ali very rightly blamed the PCB for not involving the local association in organizing such a crucial match. According to newspaper reports, he said: “Whenever international matches were played here in the past, the Karachi City Cricket Association was deeply involved in organizational matters. The KCCA has experienced manpower to handle these matters in an efficient manner. I can’t understand why the PCB opted to do everything on its own.” It is not just the DCO; the whole city has failed to understand the logic behind the decision. But then, mismanagement and corruption need no logic. Do they? The PCB CEO would know better.
TICKETS to the first One-Day match in the ongoing series between Pakistan and India exposed Pakistan Cricket Board’s incompetence to manage even the basic rights. The feeling of discrimination was already there among the Karachiites, and the manner in which PCB officials bungled the sale of tickets has only added to that.
