Frenzied crowd don't want to hear ``sold out'' (29 October 1998)
Frenzied cricket fans didn't want to accept the bad news from Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that all tickets of the Wills International Cup were sold out
29-Oct-1998
29 October 1998
Frenzied crowd don't want to hear "sold out"
by Zahid Newaz in Dhaka
Frenzied cricket fans didn't want to accept the bad news from
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that all tickets of the Wills
International Cup were sold out.
Since early morning Wednesday, they started to throng the Bangabandhu
National Stadium area counting their lucky stars for one possible
ticket.
Many of them were rewarded for their trouble and found the eastern and
western gallery tickets in black market for the expected nail-biting
quarter-final match between India and Australia. But prices were many
times higher than the normal rate.
"I couldn't manage a ticket for the match earlier. But I was
optimistic that I'll have one if I walk around the stadium before the
match," said Arifur Rahman, a student of Dhaka College, who was among
the lucky ones able to manage a ticket in black market.
Arif, a blind supporter of the India team, specially of master blaster
Sachin Tendulkar, didn't want to miss the match at any cost. But
police said many students like Arif were themselves engaged in ticket
black marketing this time.
"It's a new phenomenon. Usually an organised group around the stadium
were engaged in such crimes. But this time students were also engaged
in black marketing," said a police official. The official said he was
surprised to find many students among the people arrested during
crackdown against the black-marketeers. "They did it to make a few
fast bucks," he added.
The BCB on Tuesday made an announcement of the tickets of all the
matches of the Wills Cup were sold out. BCB President Saber Hossain
Chowdhury also advised people not to come to the stadium without
having any ticket.
When hundreds of people thronged the stadium Wednesday morning to
manage a ticket in black market, thousands of others were seen waiting
in long queues to enter the stadium since the morning although the
gates opened at noon.
Many of the enthusiastic spectators were carrying drums, flute,
national flags of mainly India and funny masks. A good number of young
crowd was seen wearing T-shirts with Indian tri-colour. The
40,000-capacity stadium was not only packed, but overflowing with
spectators.
Sumon, in his late teens, was among the many who believed that the
number of tickets released was much higher than the actual capacity of
the stadium.
"Look, hundreds of people are also standing on the passage leading to
the galleries. Had the number of tickets released been equal to the
actual capacity, this would not have happened," said Sadia who had
come to watch the batting of her favourite Sachin.
The crowd inside the stadium increased after the Indian batting as
many vendors collected used tickets from the galleries and sold those
outside the stadium.
There is a rule of re-entry with fresh pass, but the personnel
managing the gates were found reluctant to enforce it due to obvious
reasons.
Source :: CricInfo365