ODI IN DHARAMSALA: HPCA and KyaZoonga catch fraudulent tickets
Author(s): Arvind SharmaAn inside view of the HPCA Stadium at Dharamsala where the fifth ODI between India and England was held on January 27 and the officials have identified and caught a few counterfeit/fake tickets. City Air News photo:...
cityairnews
Jan 28, 2013 12:30
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An inside view of the HPCA Stadium at Dharamsala where the fifth ODI between India and England was held on January 27 and the officials have identified and caught a few counterfeit/fake tickets.
City Air News photo: Shyam Sharma
Dharamsala, January 28, 2013: Officials of the HPCA and KyaZoonga- the ticket selling agency) , confirmed that they have identified and caught a few counterfeit/fake tickets during the first ODI held at Dharamsala on January 27 during the time of ticket checking at the gates and immediately brought it to the attention of the local police officials present at the match, and were briefed on the security features on authentic tickets that were not present on the counterfeit tickets.
Authentic tickets generally incorporate several features such as special paper, marks, ink, barcodes, and other such parameters that can be identified using laser scanners, UV lights, other specialised equipment and the naked eye.
“High demand events such as the first ODI in the state of Himachal have tremendous fan interest and sadly that also means tremendous scalper interest and some scalpers create fake tickets and sell them to unknowing fans. It can be devastating to be turned away at the gates because of counterfeit tickets and we feel their pain. Clearly, the validation systems that detected the counterfeit tickets acted as a deterrent for further abuse. We always ask potential buyers to buy tickets only from the official channels”, said Neetu Bhatia, CEO of KyaZoonga.
“While this was our first ODI, HPCA has been organising several matches including hosting the IPL over the last several years and we were very aware and prepared to deal with issues like this. Our joint teams are providing all cooperation to the local police in their efforts to bring the perpetrators to book,” said Sanjay Sharma, PRO, HPCA.
Himachal police on Sunday ordered an enquiry after fake tickets were recovered from several cricket fans during the India-England ODI at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) stadium at Dharamsala.
According to SP (Kangra) Balbir Thakur, "Around 50 tickets of different stands varying from the value of Rs 1,000 to Rs. 5,000 were detected at the gates, and were found scanned/printed with fake official signatures and seat numbers."
Police claimed they were alerted following security inputs, but were still unable to catch many such spectators before their entry in the stadium.
