IPL Twenty20 cricket tournament should be banned if malpractices and irregularities in it cannot be controlled, West Bengal Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly said on Wednesday.
"Either there should be a total control over the tournament to prevent malpractices and financial irregularities or it should be banned for the benefit of cricket and cricket-loving people," Ganguly said.
Alleging irregularities in the organising of IPL matches at the Eden Gardens here, he said "we authorised the Knight Riders Sports Private Ltd to get all tickets authenticated from our department before sale, but they ignored our directive and sold them without authentication."
He referred to a letter written by Principal Secretary of the Sports Department Raghabendra Singh to Mathew Joy, the authorised signatory of Knight Riders in this context on February 10.
The minister said "according to the media the tickets of the Super Hospitality Box priced at Rs 20,000 were sold at an exorbitant rate of Rs 32,000 illegally."
