WC organisers got it wrong with tickets, restrictions

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 27 (UNI) A day before the curtain comes down on the mega event, under fire organisers of the Cricket World Cup today received another tongue lashing this time from head of the 2003 World Cup, Dr Ali Bacher who said game was for the fans, not for the administrators and ticket prices should have been much lower.

The organisers here were depending too much on overseas visitors but that did not happened because India got knocked out and expected rush failed as people did not come, he said.

''I knew then that there is going to be a problem. They (the organisers) got some thing very wrong,'' Dr Bacher said.

''Early restrictions on drums and musical instruments also put a damper on what should have been a celebratory event,'' he said and added: ''That did more harm than good to the game in the Caribbean.'' Dr Bacher has all the credentials to speak on World Cup organisation as he successfully conducted the last edition of the event.

The former South Africa cricket strong man was of the view that the price of tickets have been just too high. Tickets for the semi final match between Australia and South Africa were as high as 120 US dollars as against the final in 2003, where the the top price ticket was 40 US dollars.

''We kept the process low (in 2003) and that allowed us to have an average capacity in 54 matches to between 75 to 80 percent. I think here the organisers have definitely set their prices too high.

That is a lot of money.

''There was reason for "us to keep the price low as we wanted the majority of people (watching) to be South African and not foreigners. Ideally you want the local people to come and enjoy the World Cup but (here) most of them can not afford it,'' he said.

He was also quoted by a newspaper as saying that there was ''lack of calypso, the vibe which became synonymous with West Indies cricket.'' ''Things like that were simply unfortunate and should have been thought out.The Caribbean people are simply fantastic but it is a pity that more of them could not get to see the matches which were being played in their own back yard.'' UNI HSB DH RAI1107