FAISALABAD, Oct 23: A large number of cricket fans faced agony first in obtaining tickets and then entering Iqbal Stadium to watch the third ODI between Pakistan and South Africa here on Tuesday, Dawn observed.

Intending spectators had been running from pillar to post for the past many days to purchase tickets due to a perplexed mechanism evolved by the district government in collaboration with PCB to watch the Tuesday’s game.

And on Tuesday, their enthusiasm was further marred by the local police which barred even ticket holders from entering the stadium in the name of ‘strict security arrangements’ in the wake of Oct 18 Karachi carnage.

All enclosures of the stadium, expect the general enclosure, had the capacity to absorb more spectators but a large number of people with tickets in their hands waited for hours while queuing up in front of stadium gates but the police did not allow them to let in, saying the stadium had no more capacity.

During a survey, it was observed that a numbers of spectators were instead watching the match on PCB cards allegedly issued on the recommendation of regional development officer (RDO) and caretaker of the stadium and occupying the seats ‘sold’ to genuine ticket holders. The PCB issued a maximum number of cards on their recommendation and that too without involving the local public relation officer. Dawn tried to contact both the RDO and the caretaker on their cell phones but they did not pick the calls.