ICC announces public ballot process

Bangalore, Feb 26 (PTI) Left red-faced after World Cup
ticket fiasco, the ICC on Saturday announced the process of
public ballot system which will be used for selling tickets
for the semi-finals and the final of the quadrennial
mega-event.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) was left
embarrassed when the ticketing website kyazoonga.com, which
was initially roped in to distribute tickets for the finals,
crashed on February 21 because of overload.
To set things in order, ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat on Saturday
said that there will be a public ballot system, similar to the
one used in global sporting events for the sale of tickets of
the semifinals in Colombo and Mohali on March 29 and 30
respectively and final to be held in Mumbai on April 2.
"It was most unfortunate and no blame should be directed
at Kyazoonga, the ICC's official ticketing partner, as no one
could have anticipated that tens of millions people would be
trying to access the site an hour before it went live. In
truth, Kyazoonga have been an innocent third party in all the
issues we have had with ticketing," Lorgat said.
"In conjunction with the hosts, we have now agreed that a
ballot system is the best means of releasing any available
tickets for the semis and final. The high demand clearly
proves the massive attraction of the ICC Cricket World Cup
2011 and format of 50 overs cricket," he added.
The ballot process will start on February 28 and the fans
will need to fill and submit the Public Ballot application
form at http://cwc2011ballot.kyazoonga.com within March 6.
A ticket limit of two tickets per applicant will be
applied and only one application per person will be accepted.
In case more than one application is submitted, it will
cancelled by Kyazoonga.
A Ballot Confirmation Number will be generated once the
application is submitted and no up-front payment will be
required at this stage.
A draw will be conducted by computer on March 10 and
successful applicants will be informed by email the next day.
Successful applicants will be able to pay for their tickets
through Kyazoonga's secure payment processing website using
credit card/debit card/net-banking.
After successful payment completion, fans will receive a
confirmation page and email. Tickets will be distributed from
the third week of March 2011.
Meanwhile, Lorgat also reflected on the fact that two
contractors had been arrested in Sri Lanka for selling tickets
in the black market.
"We will support and encourage the actions of Sri Lanka
Cricket in having such persons arrested for black market
selling. It must serve as a warning that we will not hesitate
to take action against anyone who abuses the system and sells
tickets illegally," he said.