The local organising committee for the World Cup 2011 made public the breakdown for tickets on Tuesday, but still about 1, 300 tickets for each game to be held in Dhaka remained unaccounted for.
The breakdown was given after a controversy, triggered by a statement of GS Hasan Tamim, a local committee member responsible for the World Cup ticketing, who on Sunday said they would put only 15,000 tickets up for sales and the International Cricket Council would take away the remaining tickets.
As the media sought a clarification, the Bangladesh Cricket Board, after a meeting of the board of directors, issued a statement on Monday, saying that the ICC would take only 1,270 tickets for their stakeholders and 24,239 would be sent to bank for sales.
Before attending the meeting, the cricket board president, AHM Mustafa Kamal, also the chairman of the local organising committee, claimed there was nothing wrong in the sales of the World Cup tickets the demand for which had already sky-rocketed.
He also promised to make public the breakdown of ticket sales by the evening. The statement that came as late as 9:45pm, however, had no details. It rather contradicted with the earlier statement of Tamim, who was under fire from many of his cricket board colleagues for misleading the media.
Talking with reporters at the local committee office on Tuesday, Tamim backtracked from what he earlier said and revealed his plan for the tickets reserved for privileged sections of society.
He said that they would give 15,000 tickets for a match to bank in Dhaka and Chittagong for sales. A total of 1920 tickets will go to the remaining 62 districts and the 72 clubs in Dhaka will have an option to buy 1740 tickets.
The local committee earlier categorically said they would give no complementary tickets to anyone but Tamim said 2,511 tickets had been reserved for complimentary distribution.
The Prime Minister’s office will get the highest of 122 complementary tickets for each game. The second highest of 65 complementary tickets will go to the finance ministry.
The remaining complementary tickets will be distributed among other ministries, former presidents, 300 lawmakers, prime ministers’ advisers, Election Commission, high commissions, National Board of Revenue, editors, sports federations such as shooting, boxing, athletics, football, kabaddi, weightlifting, handball, karate, BCB councillors, Bangladesh Olympic Association, BCB auditors, BCB staff, BCB standing committee members, former players and women cricketers.
Some officers will also get complementary tickets but Tamim declined details.
If the total breakdown that Tamim provided is counted, the number of tickets stands at 21,117 but the cricket board on Monday said 24,239 tickets would be sold. Five per cent of the total tickets went for sales online and there are also 482 tickets reserved for 27 hospitality boxes. All this adds up to 1,757 tickets but Tamim has no explanation for 1311 more tickets.
The tickets will available with eight branches of the City Bank in Dhaka and five branches in Chittagong from January 1.
The Dhaka branches are on Bangabandhu Avenue and at Banani, Dhanmondi, Islampur, New Market, Uttara, Kawran Bazar, Mirpur and Mouchak.
The Chittagong branches are on OR Nizam Road and Jubilee Road and at Pahartali, Chawkbazar and Andar Killa. Two more banks are also trying to win the rights to ticket sales.
A person will be able to buy a maximum of two tickets for a game by showing his national identity card or passport.
