Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Thursday strongly came out in support his elder brother and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Snehasish Ganguly, saying that the state body has "no role" in the ticket controversy for Sunday's India-South Africa World Cup clash in Kolkata.
Acting on a complaint lodged at the Maidan Police Station from a fan, the Kolkata Police on Wednesday summoned Snehasish following allegations that the CAB had "purposefully put aside a large chunk of the tickets meant for the general public, making those available to the black marketers for the purpose of their personal gains."
Allegations were also made against the Indian cricket board (BCCI) and online portal BookMyShow.
"Police can only get hold of the culprit. CAB has no role in this. Eden has a capacity of 67,000 and the demand is for more than one lakh," Ganguly said during a visit to the Eden Gardens.
"It happens everywhere, the demand for tickets is so high, you can't beat it. Nobody has control over it, only the Police can stop this," added Ganguly who had a meeting with his elder brother for about two hours.
Asked why the CAB president was dragged in the controversy, Ganguly said: "It's unfortunate. CAB can't sell tickets. They don't have Box Office once the ticket is out from Eden Gardens, nobody knows where and for what price it is sold."
Some CAB life members, who could not get tickets, were also not pleased. CAB has about 11,000 members which include life, associate and annual.
"Nowhere, it's written in the CAB constitution that a life member will get tickets for life. The CAB in fact has given 3000 tickets," said the former India captain.
The lowest price of the India-South Africa tickets is of Rs 900 which are being sold for around Rs 5000 in the black market.
There were also tickets of Rs 3000, 2500 and Rs 1500 denominations.
On Tuesday, a resident of New Alipore was nabbed when he was selling the tickets in black market.
People were also angry at the CAB for going online with membership tickets.
Normally, tickets were given on the production of membership cards, but this time the members had to register first online. The portal also crashed multiple times, worsening the matter.
Members had also protested outside the Eden Gardens a day before the Bangladesh-Netherlands match, alleging ticket scam and black marketing.
"Life members are being treated like a liability by CAB. Never faced a situation like this during Jagmohan Dalmiya phase," Aman Gupta, a Facebook user, wrote.
CAB cancels Virat Kohli birthday bash
The Cricket Association of Bengal's plan to celebrate Virat Kohli's birthday on the sidelines of the India-South Africa clash was also cancelled after it failed to get an approval from the BCCI.
The CAB was to distribute 70,000 masks of Kohli among the fans. It had planned a cake cutting ceremony for Kohli, besides giving him a memento.
"But we did not get the approval from the Board, so had to cancel it," said a CAB official.
