More tickets should have been allotted for people, says ex-HCA chief

HYDERABAD: The sale of tickets for the upcoming India-Australia T-20 cricket match should not have been complicated and could have been done smoothly and easily, senior BJP leader G. Vivek Venkatswamy, a former Hyderabad Cricket Association president, said on Friday.

 “We never had problems like these when we conducted the Indian Premier League inaugural, the IPL final, and matches between 2017 and 2019. The 2019 IPL final was given to us in the HCA because of our good management and record after it was shifted from Chennai that year,” Venkatswamy told Deccan Chronicle.

On the availability of total tickets for the September 25 match, Vivek said the number that were set aside for people should have been more.

All one had to do to was to follow the Supreme Court guidelines on ticket sales and passes distribution. “We involved all the HCA secretaries and members and there were very few minor complaints,” he said.

“Even then we took care of all the VIPs as per protocol, there was a CM box, a Governor box, and ministers too were attended to for the matches as per the protocol. We did all this by following the SC guidelines,” he said.

This time around, Vivek said, there appears to be enormous pressure on the HCA and that the Association did not go about the entire exercise properly.

Former Chevella MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy told media persons the controversy over the sale of tickets smacked of a huge scam. “There were 30,000 tickets. Our prince went and told minister V. Srinivas Goud to get involved. Till then Goud was talking tough about the HCA and Azharuddin. But after yesterday’s meeting with HCA office-bearers, the minister did a complete turn around and started praising them. This is a very big scam,” he said.