Tickets for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 matches in Bangladesh will go on sale across the country from tomorrow but City Bank yesterday pointed the finger of blame at the BCB for not effectively communicating ticketing procedures to the public in due time.
The alarming information came from City Bank's chief communicating officer Mashrur Arefin, who spoke to reporters yesterday to clarify their position about the sale of tickets.
The Bank officials pointed the finger squarely at the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and said that they were still being kept in
the dark over certain vital issues.
“They (BCB) did not specify to us how many tickets are available for public consumption. Actually we didn't get any clear picture from them about ticket selling at all," informed Arefin.
City Bank will sell tickets from their fifty branches across the country while Agrani Bank will also sell tickets from thirty branches.
Arefin informed that they would be able to issue a maximum of 480 tickets from each branch per day and stated they do not have any pre-printed version of tickets but would only issue a voucher for confirmation.
“We know the demands are very high but we have certain limitations as the ticketing will be totally controlled by RTKTS system, an online website of ICC ticketing partner KyaZoonga," saidArefin.
“We don't have any control over the internet speed, so it can take more than three minutes to issue tickets to one person. It can test his patience and may result in some chaos which will be very tough to handle,” he said.
He also said that they are hugely concerned about their security and urged the people to understand the reality and be patient.
“We have asked the BCB about our own security, but they failed to give us any guarantee. We repeatedly asked them about it but they did not pay any heed to us. There was no way other than holding this press conference because we are hapless. We contracted with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who suggested to us that we should make our concern public,” he said.
“We understand that there will be a lot of emotions attached but we have to make ourselves clear so that there is no misunderstanding between us and the valued customers,'” he added.
Sales will start at 10am everyday and will continue till 6pm. People have to stand outside the branches in queues from where the bank will bring people inside in groups of five to ten at a time.
One person will be eligible to buy a maximum of two tickets per match and they must bring some identification like National ID or passport or driving license to buy the ticket. But the people, who do not possess any of these IDs, can still purchase the tickets by stating the purchaser's father or mother's name or date of birth. But in all cases a mobile number is mandatory.