Made a mistake by setting high ticket prices, says Sethi

By
Faizan Lakhani
|

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi on Friday said the board made a mistake while deciding ticket prices for the ongoing three-match Independence Cup series between Pakistan and World XI.

The PCB chairman admitted that a reason for spectators not turning up to watch the match was the high price of tickets for the series.

The first match between the two teams on Tuesday could not get a full house at Lahore’s Qaddafi Stadium.

PCB had priced the tickets at Rs500, 2,500, 4,000, 6,000 and 8,000 for different enclosures, and for many it was just too expensive.

“I have a family of five, if I am going to the Imran Khan enclosure (Rs6,000), I will have to pay 30,000 rupees, and few more for food and other expenses. That would be Rs35,000 for three hours entertainment,” a fan had pointed out yesterday.

When a journalist raised the issue during Sethi’s press conference with ICC’s CEO David Richardson, the PCB chief admitted the mistake and promised that the board will learn from this and will make a better price list next time.

“You are absolutely right about prices,” Sethi responded to the journalist. “We made a mistake by setting such high prices.”

He said the PCB, while setting prices for the tickets, was misled by the trend it witnessed during the PSL final in Lahore earlier in March.

“We were misled by the trend we saw in PSL when prices were unimportant and irrelevant and people paid high prices to come and witness the event,” the PCB chairman added.

Sethi said it was a learning experience and following the comparatively low turn-out, the board will review its pricing policy for future events.

“We should have kept lower prices for the three-match series. But I can assure you that we’ll learn from this and considerably and significantly reduce prices for future.”

The PCB chairman also highlighted that some people did not turn up due to strict security arrangements at various points in the city.

“The security was so tight that many people from different areas couldn’t reach or went back home,” he said.

“We can do very little about it as, despite our requests, the Punjab government is relentless in providing security,” Sethi added.