Bangalore, April 21: It was chaos at Gate-9 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
The refunding of tickets for the April 21 and 22 semifinal matches had begun, with hundreds of people queuing up from 10 am. With more than one lakh tickets sold for the two games and only two counters open for refunding, it turned out to be a long wait in a winding line for cricket lovers who were sorely disappointed that the semifinals were shifted to Mumbai from Bangalore. Even KSCA officials were surprised at the mismanagement of the ticket refunding process. “They should have opened more counters,” said BK Ravi, assistant secretary of KSCA.
Many enterprising Bangaloreans, however, have decided to travel to Mumbai to watch the semis there, as the tickets will still be valid. “Around 1,100 people have opted for the ‘exchange’ of tickets (for the Mumbai matches),” said an official from Ticketgenie.com, the official ticket portal for the IPL. “Around 8,000 cash-purchased tickets, worth around Rs40 lakh, have been refunded.”
The counters opened at 11am, half-an-hour late. To add to the frustration of people who had come in large numbers, the counter was closed for more than 30 minutes as they ran out of money. “I have a half-day off and came to get my money refunded,” said Saurav Mishra, an IT professional in Manyata Tech Park.
Many people who had gathered were still upset that they had lost the opportunity to watch the two semifinals in Bangalore. They were furious with BCCI’s decision to move it to Navi Mumbai. “I had been looking forward to watching the semifinals in Bangalore and the offer of getting tickets exchanged does not make sense to me as I will not be able to go there. The government should have provided better security,” said Kiran CT, an IT employee.
KK Pandey, who works with transport company Marco Polo, suffered big losses as he had bought 50 tickets. “The refund amount would come to Rs63,000 but they refused to refund the money and asked me to go to their office for the refund,” he said. “I have been watching matches in Bangalore for the past 20 years but an experience of this sort has never happened. It is ridiculous. They should at least put up a board with the relevant information.”
Those who had bought tickets online too were left fretting. “I wonder why we can’t get the money reversed to our credit cards. Bangalore is supposed to be the IT hub and we can’t get something as simple as online ticketing right,” Sanjay Shah, managing director of MFG.com, who was standing in the queue, said.
An official from Ticketgenie.com told DNA that the ticket holders need not have come to the counters.“The money will directly be reversed to their credit cards and those numbers are not clear yet. It should be done in a day’s time,” an official from the portal said.
–Agencies–