KARACHI: Thousands of Karachiites returned empty-handed from dozens of designated centres of a courier company on Thursday as the sale of tickets for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final witnessed gross mismanagement.

The online sale also suffered a blow when the website of the courier company crashed and took hours to restore.

Minutes after restoration, the website announced that the cheapest tickets of Rs1,000 denomination had been sold out.

Thousands of people, including women and children, were seen lined up at the 32 outlets of the courier company designated for the purpose and received nothing but apology from the staff within the first half of the day.

PCB remains tight-lipped over the issue

The residents of the city took to the social media to vent their anger and raised serious questions over the transparency in the sale of tickets and in some cases levelled serious allegations on the basis of their experiences at the courier centres.

“We waited for more than four hours in a long queue at a designated courier office on University Road near Hasan Square,” said a student, Hasan Haider.

“Minutes before our turn, two police vans arrived and their policemen entered the courier company office. As soon as the policemen returned, the courier staff announced that Rs1,000 tickets were finished and only some tickets of Rs8,000 and Rs12,000 denominations were left for the sale,” he added.

Another cricket fan Asifa Mobin said she went to the Sharea Faisal outlet but was denied a ticket without any reason.

“When hundreds of people at the centre protested, the courier centre employees told us that all the tickets of small denominations were [sold out],” she added.

Despite protests at courier centres and so much anger on the social media, there was no word from the Pakistan Cricket Board over the issue.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah accompanied by Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal and Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro visited the National Stadium to review arrangements for the final.

“The law and order situation is under control and we are making foolproof arrangements for the final,” he said while talking to reporters after the visit.

“The Sindh government has prepared a beautiful ground within the premises of the stadium for practice and other matches. All the roads and streets leading to the stadium are being repaired and beautified just like the stadium by our government.

“I personally chaired a number of meetings to review the arrangements in and outside of the stadium. This is our event and we will make it successful.”

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018