Hyderabad: Nineteen hours after a ‘sold out’ board was displayed, the Indian Premier League conducted the Phase-2 of sale of tickets for the May 12 final to be played in Hyderabad on Thursday, again without any announcement or notification.
According to the organisers, EventsNow, a private booking firm handling the ticketing for the IPL final, sold out the tickets within seven hours after they went on sale at 9 am. Up to 35 per cent of the tickets went on sale on Thursday.
The BCCI or the IPL did not make any announcement about the second phase of ticket sales. EventsNow put up two posts on two social media platforms a few hours prior to the commencement of the sale.
This newspaper was the first to report how the first lot of tickets to the IPL final were sold out in two minutes flat. In response to the report, EventsNow CEO Naidu Darapaneni said, “We have been authorised to sell tickets in four denominations — Rs 1,500, Rs 2,000, Rs 2,500, and Rs 5,000. Over 30-35 per cent tickets were sold on Thursday during the second phase of sales, and there might be another phase but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.”
“The responsibility to advertise the ticket sales lies solely with the BCCI,” Mr Darapaneni said. He admitted that no formal announcement about the sale of tickets was made in advance.
About the hike in ticket prices, Mr Darapaneni said, “The price was hiked by the BCCI. Besides, they are the ones handling the VIP enclosure tickets. Unless EventsNow receives formal communication from the BCCI regarding the sales, we must continue to abide by our contract and not disclose such details to the public.”
Ideally, before any match, a formal press release is issued in order to keep people informed about the impending sale of tickets. As a result of the last-minute change of venue from Chennai to Hyderabad, which reportedly put the organisers on the edge with respect to printing, and sprucing up the stadium and making other arrangements such as travel, transport and accommodation in a short time this could not be done.
