IPL final overcrowding not due to fake tickets: Cricket South Africa

Johannesburg, May 28 (ANI): An investigation by Cricket South Africa (CSA) has found that overcrowding at the final of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) at Liberty Life Wanderers Stadium on Sunday was not due to the use of fraudulent tickets.

CSA's investigation followed a newspaper article on Monday, which quoted the stadium's CEO, Alan Kourie, as stating that the stadium had been dangerously overcrowded for the final because of the use of fraudulent tickets.

The investigation findings were released on Wednesday by CSA CEO Gerald Majola, who said the ticketing and access control systems at the final were provided by Computicket and CSA to the stadium respectively, Sports 24 reported.

"In 2003, CSA implemented an access control system at all major cricket venues through South Africa. This system has received various upgrades since then, and we are very proud to say that we are the only sporting body in South Africa with such a comprehensive and effective access control system," Majola said.

"Computicket managed to recover the so-called fraudulent tickets, to which the article refers, from the Liberty Life Wanderers Cricket Stadium - totalling 327 tickets. On checking these fraudulent tickets it was discovered that 177 tickets were stolen from Computicket, 66 tickets were stolen from those allocated to the stadium and 144 were actually tickets for the semi-final," he said.

The official attendance at the stadium for the DLF IPL final was 25 418 as recorded by the access control system. If the stadium did in fact have more spectators than this, these patrons would have had to access the stadium via entrances not controlled by the access control system.

Majola said CSA is proud to have hosted DLF IPL 2009 which was a resounding success, and would like to heartily thank the South African public for their support. (ANI)