The board has apparently located over 1900 tickets on offer for the upcoming World Twenty20 series, and that too mostly on internet auction and ticket-resale sites. When the same thing happened while the sale of tickets for the Ashes was on, the Board put down a set of warnings for people buying tickets from such unauthorized sources, but nothing seemed to have any effect. They warned that people who possess these tickets may be refused entry and lose their money; if the ticket is tracked to the source, it could be cancelled, and the buyer would be in trouble. Also, the secondary ticket market is ridden by criminal operations, and that can really affect the sport. But none of these admonitions seem to be deterring people from turning to unauthorized sources for tickets.

Though tickets for the World Twenty20 are selling fast, online sales for the Ashes generated a much greater interest, and tickets were sold-out several months ago. The popularity of these cricketing events gives illegal ticket dealers to seek to price out cricket fans by selling tickets for many times their original fee. One website today had prices varying from 1p as a starting price up to £725 for 16 seats in the final on June 21st at Lords.

The ECB’s efforts to combat touting are commendable. They have devised means to track down such sites, to locate the sellers, cancel the tickets and are also offering buyers a refund, or threatening to take them to court if they resell the tickets. They also have news campaigns and help lines so cricket supporters can also contribute by giving evidence of touting sites. All this forms part of a move to make the government constrict the regulations surrounding ticket sales.

However, what the ECB is neglecting are initial ticket sales. An eBay spokesperson is quoted by the Guardian: "Even if eBay were to agree to voluntary measures, these tickets would simply be sold elsewhere, either on the internet or on the streets, where there is less consumer protection for fans if there is a problem with the transaction." 

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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