CUTTACK: When cricket fans were deprived of getting hold of a single ticket for the India-South Africa T20I at Barabati Stadium here on Sunday, black marketers were having a field day by raking big money by selling tickets online.
Sources alleged that the black marketers bought match tickets in bulk online and also off the counters by engaging brokers and persons belonging to the labour class. They were then selling the tickets at a high price on the sales websites and even through WhatsApp groups.
When a person is entitled to buy only two tickets, there were many who bought more than 10 tickets from the website, it was alleged. They were selling gallery No. 2 tickets worth Rs 700 at Rs 5,000. For gallery No. 3 tickets worth Rs 900 they charged over Rs 5,000.
Moreover, the tickets of gallery No. 4 priced at Rs 7,000 were sold for Rs 15,000, sources added. The black marketers are also said to have obtained huge number of complimentary passes through different mediums, which were sold in the black market.
The total capacity of Barabati Stadium is 44, 234, OCA had made available 29,154 saleable tickets which included 8,000 for affiliated units/ office bearers/ BCCI affiliated units. Around 21,154 tickets were kept for the general public including 9,061 for online sale.
All the 12,093 offline tickets for the general public were sold out on day one even though the OCA had made arrangement for its sale at nine counters over two days. While Cuttack DCP Pinak Mishra could not be reached for comments, a senior police officer said the blackmarketing matter would be looked into.