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ODI ticket not sold in black, maintains HCA president
Stung by the strong criticism against the way sale of tickets for the India-Australia ODI were are handled, Labour Minister and Hyderabad Cricket Association President G. Vinod on Wednesday vehemently denied the charge that tickets meant for public were sold in black. He also did not agree that the ticket prices were high.
At the same time. Mr.Vinod justified the HCA issuing complimentary passes to corporate houses, covering 13,000 out of the 39,000 seats available in the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium at Uppal, the venue for ODI on Friday. He said the HCA was obliged to the corporate houses as they had donated heavily “when none offered a single paisa” for the stadium construction. Visakha Industries alone offered Rs.4.3 crore.
As such,40 ‘Corporate boxes’ had been provided in the stadium, each against a donation of Rs.16 to Rs.20 lakh. Similarly, the HCA was obliged to issue another 11,000 complimentary passes to VIPs such as selection committee memebers, its former secretaries and other office bearers and those belonging to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and International Cricket Council.
The HCA president said rest of the 15,000s seats had been offered to public for sale. Naturally, there was scramble. One should gauge the difficulty of HCA comparing the 39,000 seats as against the large number of cricket lovers and floating population estimted at 30 Lakhs.
When it was pointed out that the counters at the four branches of the UCO Bank in Hyderabad designated to sell the tickets, had been closed within minutes, the Minister said all the tickets were genuinely sold and ” there is nothing fishy about this “. There was stampede for seats in the south and North pavilions as palyers could be viewed from here clearly. The HCA would get a profit of Rs 4 crore out of this oneday international match.