Chaos, demonstrations and stray clashes marked the opening day sales of tickets for World Cup Cricket matches to be held in Bangladesh as people, who had waited in front of bank branches since Saturday afternoon, failed to buy tickets on Sunday.
People disheartened at not being able to buy tickets went out on violent demonstrations in places across the country.
People attacked the City Bank branch at Narayanganj, scuffled and clashed at the bank’s branches at Mirpur, where about 30 were hurt, and at New Market in Dhaka. People held protests in Barisal and Chittagong.
Tickets for eight matches of the World Cup, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka along with Bangladesh, are being sold in an online system of the India-based ticket booking company KyaZoonga, which has earned the ticket sales right from the International Cricket Council.
International money transfer agency MoneyGram, which in October 2010 became an official sponsor of the International Cricket Council, made the arrangement of ticket sales with its partners City Bank and Agrani Bank.
Fifty City Bank and 30 Agrani Bank branches are selling the tickets which will continue for two weeks.
Bank officials two days ago said they would not be able to sell more than 480 tickets from a branch a day. But they could not do so on Sunday as some bank officials said the servers were down and in some other places, they said the internet connection had become slow.
‘We were denied sales access to tickets for the international gallery priced at Tk 2,000, for the grand stand priced at Tk 3,000 and for the international hospitality box priced at Tk 10,000,’ a high City Bank official said.
‘KyaZoonga cheated us as we could access only the tickets for the club house priced at Tk 700, the north and the south gallery priced at Tk 400 and the eastern gallery priced at Tk 200 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium,’ he said.
People alleged that the bank officials were selling tickets at their whims. They also said that the officials did not go by the rule that a person could buy two tickets for each of the matches.
The lawmen charged with truncheons at people who at 2:00pm attacked the City Bank branch in Narayanganj. Sales of tickets began at 10:00am.
People also alleged that the tickets for the Bangladesh-India match were found sold out within half an hour at the Mirpur branch of the City Bank.
The chief communications officer of the City Bank, Mashrur Arefin, said ‘We are surprised to have received an all-sold-out signal for tickets for the India-Bangladesh match about 10:30am, half an hour after the ticket sales had begun. The KyaZoonga server was saying that there were no tickets available for sales with the Mirpur branch.’
‘The Narayanganj branch was attacked. Glasses were broken. We also faced hassles at our branches at Mirpur and New Market,’ he added.
People were not let in the Amin Court Agrani Bank branch at the designated time. Bank officials said the server was down and the internet speed was slow. But people, who went there to buy tickets, alleged that bank officials and policemen managed the tickets before the sales had begun.
At least 30 were injured as people clashed at Mirpur after they had failed to buy tickets. They also vandalised several vehicles in the place, witnesses said. Policemen in riot gear charged at the people with truncheons to control the situation.
Witnesses said that a large number of people gathered in front the City Bank branch at Mirpur, tailing back on to the main road and the situation went out of control two hours after the sales had begun.
The police also charged with truncheons at people waiting to buy tickets at Banani after they had scuffled there, sources said.
In Chittagong, where two of the eight matches will be held, people gathered on the Jubilee Road from Saturday evening to buy tickets from the City Bank branch and the scuffle began when the bank’s computer server went down.
‘I have stayed here for the whole night but I have not got the ticket,’ said Shariful Haq, pointing finger at the bank officials for selling the tickets earlier.
The bank’s branch manager, Anisur Rahman, however, said, ‘Our server went down and we could not meet the people’s demand.’ Sources said nothing but some stray scuffles took place in the city.
In Barisal, people went out on demonstrations after they had failed to buy tickets. Many alleged that ticket sales would have been smooth if the bank authorities had been a bit more active.
Mahbub Anam, vice-president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, said that they had nothing to do with the sales of tickets as the banks are selling the tickets under the agreement with MoneyGram.
Asked about the security of the bank branches, he said the cricket board could not provide the banks with security as the banks are dealing with MoneyGram.
A City Bank official said the branches could not carry out their normal transaction because of the ticket sales and associated hassles and scuffles.
No comments of either KyaZoonga or MoneyGram were available.
