Cricket Australia says sorry

James Sutherland: 'Scalpers using eBay are a disgraceful insult to normal, loyal cricket fans' © Getty Images

Cricket Australia has apologised for the delays in its ticketing scheme that left thousands of dedicated supporters without seats. The race for spots in the Australian Cricket Family allocation has sold out the first three days in every Test venue except Melbourne, which at 4pm still had about 1000 spaces for Boxing Day.

Sydney, Adelaide and Perth will be full houses for the opening four days as more than 280,000 tickets have been snapped up. About 3500 day-four tickets are available for the first Test at the Gabba, and another 2100 for each day are due to go on general release from June 19. The initial sale has been swamped by users who have complained of problems accessing the ticket companies' websites and telephone operators that were set up to cater for the 128,500 members of the priority system.

Scalpers have also cashed in by immediately placing their buys on eBay for prices thousands of dollars more than their retail value. "Scalpers using eBay are a disgraceful insult to normal, loyal cricket fans who should have access to these tickets at face value," James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's CEO, said. Organisers have told people purchasing black market tickets to beware and say they have asked experts about tracking the passes.

Cricket Australia has been criticised by members of its "family" for not ensuring easy acess for buyers. A Cricket Australia spokesman said ticket agencies had been working at full capacity to cope with the high demand. "There have been delays during the ticket sales process for which we apologise," he said, "and Cricket Australia thanks Australian Cricket Family members for their patience and perseverance." The spokesman said tickets were available for most ODIs, including the game at the SCG between Australia and New Zealand, and there were large vacancies for days two to four at the MCG.

Emma McCracken, the Ticketmaster spokeswoman in Sydney, said the company expected the demand and despite repeated busy messages - the company one and server error notices - she was convinced the system never crashed. "Both the Ticketmaster website and phones performed exceptionally," she said. Thousands of cricket fans disagree.