ICC announces public ballot process

Bangalore, Feb 26 (PTI) Left red-faced after World Cupticket fiasco, the ICC today announced the process of publicballot system which will be used for selling tickets for thesemi-finals and the final of the quadrennial mega-event.

The ICC was left embarrassed when the ticketing websitekyazoonga.com, which was initially roped in to distributetickets for the finals, crashed on February 21 because ofoverload.

To set things in order, ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat today saidthat there will be a public ballot system, similar to the oneused in global sporting events for the sale of tickets of thesemifinals in Colombo and Mohali on March 29 and 30respectively and final to be held in Mumbai on April 2.

"It was most unfortunate and no blame should be directedat Kyazoonga, the ICC''s official ticketing partner, as no onecould have anticipated that tens of millions people would betrying to access the site an hour before it went live. Intruth, Kyazoonga have been an innocent third party in all theissues we have had with ticketing," Lorgat said.

"In conjunction with the hosts, we have now agreed that aballot system is the best means of releasing any availabletickets for the semis and final. The high demand clearlyproves the massive attraction of the ICC Cricket World Cup2011 and format of 50 overs cricket," he added.

The ballot process will start on February 28 and the fanswill need to fill and submit the Public Ballot applicationform at http://cwc2011ballot.kyazoonga.com within March 6.

A ticket limit of two tickets per applicant will beapplied and only one application per person will be accepted.

In case more than one application is submitted, it willcancelled by Kyazoonga.

A Ballot Confirmation Number will be generated once theapplication is submitted and no up-front payment will berequired at this stage.

A draw will be conducted by computer on March 10 andsuccessful applicants will be informed by email the next day.

Successful applicants will be able to pay for their ticketsthrough Kyazoonga''s secure payment processing website usingcredit card/debit card/net-banking.

After successful payment completion, fans will receive aconfirmation page and email. Tickets will be distributed fromthe third week of March 2011.

Meanwhile, Lorgat also reflected on the fact that twocontractors had been arrested in Sri Lanka for selling ticketsin the black market.

"We will support and encourage the actions of Sri LankaCricket in having such persons arrested for black marketselling. It must serve as a warning that we will not hesitateto take action against anyone who abuses the system and sellstickets illegally," he said.