Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan has questioned the Cricket World Cup ticket process after pointing out the many empty seats during the India and South Africa match on Wednesday.
The game, held at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl, had been reported as sold-out, with the International Cricket Council’s general manager of communications, Claire Furlong, stating that the match had drawn a capacity crowd of more than 17,000.
Vaughan, who led the England team between 2003 and 2008, said on BBC Radio Five Live: “Such a shame there are so many empty seats.
“They keep saying it’s sold out but where are the tickets?”
Cricket fans also voiced their anger over the empty seats, with one fan stating: “A farce and a disgrace that fans struggle to get tickets and we had rows of empty seats (just a small sample) in #INDvSA match yesterday – please do something!”
#CWC19 @ICC @cricketworldcup @BBCSport @SkySportsNews A farce and disgrace that fans struggle to get tickets and we had rows of empty seats (just a small sample) in #INDvsSA match yesterday – please do something !!! pic.twitter.com/CLTxJpce4n
— matwalaboy (@smooth_handler) June 6, 2019
Another added: “When the top tickets are between £140/£235, I think people have decided to stay away. Ripping off the Indian fans in particular.”
Furlong responded to AFP stating: “The match is a 17,200 sell-out. We haven’t had a turnstile count yet but all day there have been a couple of thousand milling around the concourses.
“We will conduct an evaluation to see if there are any trends and whether we need to communicate more about start times.
“We provide a re-sale platform for tickets so that fans who’ve missed out can buy them without being ripped off by secondary re-sale sites.
“But if people who’ve bought tickets don’t turn up, there’s only so much we can do.”
Image: ICC
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