IPL Playoff Tickets: Fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Tickets for two IPL 2023 playoffs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk) in Chennai will only be sold online. With reports of long overnight queues, BCCI and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) have decided to sell tickets only online. Chepauk will host Qualifier 1 and Eliminator on May 23 & 24. Follow Indian Premier League LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
IPL 2023 Playoffs Schedule:
- Qualifier 1: Chepauk, Chennai, May 23, Tuesday at 7:30 PM
- Eliminator: Chepauk, Chennai, May 24, Wednesday at 7:30 PM
- Qualifier 2: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, May 26, Friday at 7:30 PM
- Final: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, May 28, Sunday at 7:30 PM
Also Read: Watch Nehal Wadhera roaming with pads on at Mumbai airport as punishment
As reported by InsideSport earlier, black-marketing of tickets has been high for Chepauk matches. With online tickets getting sold out in seconds, fans turned to offline tickets. However, there, fans paid homeless, students and daily wagers to stand in queues and buy tickets. In return, those daily wagers earn Rs 500-1000 per ticket.
Most of these women are getting paid Rs 800 to stand in queue and pass on tickets to black market racketeers who sell Rs 1,500 tickets for 5000 and Rs 2,000 ticket for an excess of 6,500. pic.twitter.com/Xni0d8Tjqj
— Venkata Krishna B (@venkatatweets) May 12, 2023
IPL Playoff Tickets: Tickets through proxies:
As getting tickets online has been next to impossible due to high demand, fans turned to offline sales at the stadium box office. However, most of the time, fans had to shell out 2-3 times extra to procure them.
As reported by Indian Express, fans queued up from 8:30 PM a day before. However, not all of them were fans. Many were proxies who made a profit to procure tickets for the actual fans.
CSK chennai IPL tickets is Biggest Online ticket booking Fraud….
I am from Goa and been trying to book tickets online , as counter booking is not possible….Refreshing continuously , trying on laptop and phone..
Sold out in 2 min is a Fraud
Disappointed ! #csktickets pic.twitter.com/l1NTZlo2OP
— Nihal Naik (@NaikNihal113) May 8, 2023
Srinivas Ganesan, a passionate Chennai Super Kings fan, was one of those who paid a proxy to stand in queue for him. He paid Rs 500 to someone to stand in the queue.
“You can say it’s unethical and fueling black marketing, but that’s the only option I think I have to watch the match. I tried on PayTM Insider and on CSK websites but all are sold out. I have an off on Sunday and don’t want to miss out on the match. If I can get a ticket, paying 500 bucks extra, why not. The person I paid to is also earning something, it’s a win-win,” Ganesan told InsideSport.
Black Marketing on Social Media:
However, while selling tickets online solves one part of the problem, it does not remedy black marketing. Tickets have been sold with 3-5 times margin through social media platforms, especially Twitter, Facebook and Telegram. However, the platforms have done nothing to stop such promotion.
A customary search on Twitter, Google and Facebook showed up hundreds of posts selling tickets at exorbitant prices. Facebook marketplace which has become a den for such black marketing had tickets being sold at over Rs 13000 (Original price 5,000).
However, apart from some customary arrests, police have done next to nothing to stop them. Furthermore, social media platforms have done limited such posts or taken them down, enabling black marketers to make hefty profits, and taking advantage of players’ passion.
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