Its A Big Shamozzle
What is it with cricket administrators always making the headlines for all the wrong reasons? Cricket Australia is regarded as being the most professional and well managed outfit in the haphazard world of cricket administration. This reputation, for mine anyway, is at severe risk of being blown away if they continue to make decisions like this.
Sure, they did an excellent job of hyping up the Ashes. It was a great contest last time around, but I have my doubts about the contestability of the upcoming series (more on that later). However, CA's marketing arm worked a treat and Ashes fever gripped the country - 5 months out from the actual event. Cricket is big in Australia, but not big enough to make the back pages of newspapers during the winter months, when footy (AFL) rules the roost and nothing else compares. Me thinks the BCCI's marketing group should outsource their jobs to CA. Anything would be better than asking D Hair to endorse Indian cricket balls (view my post on this topic).
But, I digress. CA should at least have the decency to publish the ticket numbers for the list of tickets that they have decided to cancel. It is patently obvious that CA knew this was on the cards. If they really were serious about cracking down on ticket scalpers they should've designed a system that had more chance of minimising the practice. Restricting the number of tickets per person to 2 or 3, would have been a start. I could think of a number of other technological solutions that could be implemented to minimise scalping (this is a sports blog, so I won't bore you by naming them).
I, personally, don't have an issue with people buying excess tickets, then selling them in a fair and open marketplace, such as eBay. These people had the application, dedication and patience to withstand CA's abhorrent ticket sales systems, while some others simply could not stomach the fight. The resilient should now reap their rewards.
The fact of the matter is, CA has proven itself to be just as incompetent and lead-footed as the ICC, BCCI and any other cricketing administration you would care to name. It is far too late to stop the "rot". CA needs to stop making a veritable fool of itself and devise solutions and implement them from the outset. Actions speak louder than words, my Mom once lectured me.
Sure, they did an excellent job of hyping up the Ashes. It was a great contest last time around, but I have my doubts about the contestability of the upcoming series (more on that later). However, CA's marketing arm worked a treat and Ashes fever gripped the country - 5 months out from the actual event. Cricket is big in Australia, but not big enough to make the back pages of newspapers during the winter months, when footy (AFL) rules the roost and nothing else compares. Me thinks the BCCI's marketing group should outsource their jobs to CA. Anything would be better than asking D Hair to endorse Indian cricket balls (view my post on this topic).
But, I digress. CA should at least have the decency to publish the ticket numbers for the list of tickets that they have decided to cancel. It is patently obvious that CA knew this was on the cards. If they really were serious about cracking down on ticket scalpers they should've designed a system that had more chance of minimising the practice. Restricting the number of tickets per person to 2 or 3, would have been a start. I could think of a number of other technological solutions that could be implemented to minimise scalping (this is a sports blog, so I won't bore you by naming them).
I, personally, don't have an issue with people buying excess tickets, then selling them in a fair and open marketplace, such as eBay. These people had the application, dedication and patience to withstand CA's abhorrent ticket sales systems, while some others simply could not stomach the fight. The resilient should now reap their rewards.
The fact of the matter is, CA has proven itself to be just as incompetent and lead-footed as the ICC, BCCI and any other cricketing administration you would care to name. It is far too late to stop the "rot". CA needs to stop making a veritable fool of itself and devise solutions and implement them from the outset. Actions speak louder than words, my Mom once lectured me.
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