Complaint lodged against Bengal cricket association, online ticket booking portal over alleged black marketing of WC tickets

Police complaint lodged against CAB, online ticket booking portal over alleged black marketing of World Cup cricket tickets

Kolkata: Kolkata Police has summoned officials of the Cricket Association of Bengal and the online ticket booking portal following a complaint lodged alleging black marketing of tickets for Sunday’s ICC World Cup match between India and South Africa, an officer said.

The police issued notices to CAB and the online ticket booking portal asking them to appear before them on Thursday but none of the representatives of the CAB and the online ticket booking portal appeared before them, the officer said.

A case was registered at the Maidan Police Station on Wednesday following a complaint received from cricket lovers alleging black marketing of tickets "owing to the connivance of an online portal along with officials of the CAB and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)" for the India-South Africa match on Sunday, he said.

The complainants alleged that certain BCCI and CAB officials, along with the online ticket booking portal intentionally reserved a good number of tickets meant for the general public, making them available to black-marketers.

A senior official of the CAB rubbished the allegations and said that they were only hosting the match and have no involvement in the selling of the tickets which was looked after by the online portal and the International Cricket Council (ICC).