COLOMBO – Sri Lankan police have arrested a volunteer for selling tickets at a much inflated price for Saturday’s match between the co-host nation and Pakistan, officials said on Thursday. “We have arrested a volunteer for selling tickets outside the ticketing counter and are doing the investigations,” police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said on Thursday.
Police sources said the seller had obtained the tickets by recruiting volunteers to stay in long queues and buy the tickets.
The tickets were bought at 50 rupees ($1.77) and resold at 1500 rupees ($53.06). Ajith Jayasekara, the chief executive officer of Sri Lanka Cricket, said all the tickets for the match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been sold. “They were snapped up in about two hours,” he said. “Only ticket holders will be permitted to the area and there will be a huge crowd but we are prepared for crowd control.”
The island nation’s new ground in Hambantota attracted a near-capacity crowd of 35,000 when Sri Lanka played against Canada on Sunday and a huge throng of people tried to push their way in without tickets.
