Where did the tickets go?
The Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium premises turned into a sea of red as droves of fans, clad in their favourite team's jersey, showed up to watch the final of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) between Comilla Victorians and Fortune Barishal on Friday.
The 25,000-seater stadium was filled to the rafters during the game, much to the credit of the passionate fans, some of whom had to endure a lot of chaos, long queues and even a police charge to procure tickets while others had to pay five-six times more than the fixed rate to buy tickets from ticket blackers.
Tickets for the final went on sale at the venue on Thursday, a day before the match. The counters were supposed to open at 9:30 am but opened at noon and not long after the ticket sale began, the sellers at the counters announced that they had run out of tickets.
The announcement enraged the crowd and police then stepped in, charged at the fans to control the situation.
In the afternoon, following the crowd troubles, the counters resumed selling tickets but there was a shortage.
On the day of the final, people started queueing for tickets five-six hours before the game began and despite being in line for hours, many failed to procure tickets.
Some of the fans had purchased ticket tokens online but claimed that they could not collect the actual tickets at the online counter at the venue, which was right next to the stadium entrance gate, due to the commotion.
At one point, the counters got closed down due to huge lines and scarcity of tickets to sell. But the ticket blackers had no shortage of tickets and were selling them at an inflated rate.
"We can provide even 600 tickets. How many do you need?" a ticket blacker told a reporter.
The Eastern Stand tickets were officially priced at Tk 300 but the ticket blackers were selling them at Tk 1500-1800 each.
Tickets at the Club House were set at Tk 800 but were being sold at Tk 2000 or more and the Grand Stand tickets, Tk 2500, were going for Tk 3500-5000 in the black market.
"I have been looking for tickets since the morning. But they are asking Tk 1500 for tickets that cost Tk 300. We said we will give them Tk 1000 but they replied that we should get it now as later the same tickets would cost Tk 2000 each," Faisal, who came from Patuakhali for the final, told reporters outside the stadium.
BCB officials could not be reached to comment on the chaos for tickets.
But the fans who did manage to get tickets, were in great spirits. One Barishal fan chanted, "We will not let go, the trophy is going to Barishal". The Comilla fans retorted. "The fifth star is coming."