Abu Dhabi: Looking for tickets to the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and can’t find them? Fret not, there’s plenty on the grey market. Only you may have to shell out a small fortune for a three hour cricket match.
On a popular classifieds website, touts are asking Dh1,500 for a Dh80 ticket to the tournament’s opening fixture at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Stadium on April 16.
That may be about 20 times the ticket price for a ‘sold out’ match, but Robin, one of the men illegally selling these tickets online, said he had 15 takers in less than 15 minutes after posting an online ad.
When this reporter called him posing as a customer, the Mumbai man said he could arrange for more, “I have a friend who is a player-cum-coach in Abu Dhabi. He gets complimentary tickets,” he said unabashedly.
David East, Chief Executive of the Emirates Cricket Board, who are hosting a part of the cash rich cricket extravaganza for the first time, denied having any knowledge of tickets being sold illegally. “We will look into it,” he promised, adding that nobody had been issued complimentary tickets.
The IPL claimed they sold around 40,000 online tickets in the UAE in three days. Half of those were snapped up within an hour of tickets going live on Thursday, 3 April 2014.
However, as of Monday, East couldn’t confirm if any game was a ‘sell out’
GROUND REALITIES
By Monday though, tickets for the opening fixture between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians and the Friday, April 25, double-header (Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians) had become unavailable on www.iplt20.com and www.ticketmaster.ae, the two official online ticket sites in the UAE.
Confusion reigned at Lulu outlets that began selling tickets from April 7.
“I spent two hours before reaching the counter only to discover tickets for both games I planned to go had been sold out. They weren’t even available on the official sites,” said Sharad Kanar, 43, who had taken time off work to try and buy tickets for his family of six from Lulu in Al Barsha.
His brother who had lined up at Lulu Hypermarket in Karama since ‘nine in the morning’ too returned empty handed after the counter closed ‘due to technical glitches’.
For the ‘black marketers’ though, it was business time. Jignesh who bought four ‘platinum tickets’ for the April 19 double header in Dubai for Dh250 was selling them for Dh750 on a popular website.
“There are others selling for more. I’m quoting a reasonable price – only three times more the original price,” he insisted.
Genuine fans are livid. “It’s a rip off. How can they charge 20 times the price?” said Rajasthan Royals fan, Kavita.
Mumbai Indians supporter Vinayak, 28, said, “This is just not cricket. I would rather watch the matches at home.”
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