Kolkata Police asks BCCI for ticket sale details in black-marketing probe

The Kolkata Police has asked the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) to furnish information on ticket sales of Sunday’s India-South Africa World Cup match which saw agitations and allegations of black marketing of tickets. Kolkata Police issued a notice to BCCI president Roger Binny seeking information on ticket sales for the event, a senior officer said, adding that the cricket body had been asked to send the information by Tuesday.

“The BCCI has been asked to provide documents relating to the sale of tickets to the Maidan police station where life members of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) lodged a formal complaint earlier this week alleging black marketing of complimentary tickets from their quota,” a Kolkata Police officer said on condition of anonymity.

“BCCI president Roger Binny may provide the information himself by Tuesday or depute someone from the BCCI to interact with Maidan police station. A similar notice was earlier sent to the CAB president Snehashis Ganguly, brother of former India captain and BCCI’s ex-president Sourav Ganguly, since the complaint has been lodged against CAB,” the officer added.

The BCCI and the host Cricket Association of Bengal have been facing flak for their handling of ticket sales and the lack of transparency by Bookmyshow portal which was given the right to sell World Cup tickets. “It has been alleged that certain officials of the BCCI, along with officials of the CAB and the online portal BookMyShow, has purposefully put aside a large chunk of the tickets meant for the general public, making those available