BPL ticket crisis: Spectators stop Miraz’s car, vandalise stadium gate
A chaotic situation had already arisen Sunday regarding the sale of Bangladesh Premiere League (BPL) tickets. The ticket-seeking audience even carried out a protest march against the ‘negligence’ on Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)’s part regarding the sale of tickets.
The chaos went out of hand today, Monday, the first day of the tournament. Without finding tickets, the enraged audience vandalised gate no. 2 of the Sher-e-Bangla stadium. In fact, they had also intercepted the car of Mehidy Hasan Miraz, captain of Khulna Tigers.
BCB had stated on Sunday afternoon that tickets will not be sold at any booth adjacent to Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. Instead, the tickets would be found online at www.gobcbticket.com.bd and at the selected branches of Modhumoti Bank.
The audience became enraged when they did not find tickets at those branches of Modhumoti Bank. Since the audience had smashed gate no. 2 of the stadium, the team buses couldn’t enter the through that entrance today.
The team bus of Durbar Rajshahi entered the grounds through gate no. 4. In the end the police had to charge on them to diffuse the situation. The situation was quite stable after that.
In the first match of the tournament that kicked off at 1:30 pm today, Durbar Rajshahi and Fortune Barishal faced each other. Meanwhile, Rangpur Riders would be playing against Dhaka Capitals at 6:30 pm today.
The chaos started yesterday, Sunday as the BCB had not announced where the tickets can be found or what the prices of the tickets were. Meanwhile, as it was the eve of the tournament many started arriving at the ticket booths of Sher-e-Bangla stadium from Sunday morning.
But when they found the booths closed, they started a commotion there and then brought out a protest march. At one point, the agitated audience forcibly burst open gate no. 2 of the stadium and barged into the Stadium Complex.
Later, after bringing the situation under control, the BCB issued a press release on Sunday afternoon to announce the details of the ticket sales.
Tickets can be purchased online and from seven branches of Modhumoti Bank. The branches are located at Mirpur-11, Motijheel, Uttara's Jasimuddin, Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Kamrangirchar and VIP Road in Paltan.
The ticket prices range from a minimum of Tk 200 to a maximum of Tk 2,000. Ticket sales started at the bank from 4:00 pm and continued until 7:00 pm yesterday. Today the sales of ticket started from 10:00 am.