On Tuesday, the owner of a printing press and three of his staff members were arrested for producing fake tickets for the tournament while, on the same day, the warm-up game between Bangladesh and Pakistan was half full because fans could not get into the ground.
Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha sentenced Gayanath Mazumdar, 52, to two years in jail and fined him Sh114,265 after a tip-off led police to his printing press.
Three other employees were also fined the same amount each, although they will not serve time.
During the raid, it was discovered that the printing press had previously been involved in fake ticketing for concerts and other major events.
Holders of tickets printed at this press would not have had access to match venues because the barcode readers would have rejected them, said Pasha.
Even legitimate ticket holders battled to get into the stadium for the warm-up match because of the systems in place.
Fans who bought the 9,000 vouchers released to a local bank were unable to get their match tickets without first verifying their identity at the stadium.
Proof of purchase
The company handling the ticketing, Kyazoonga, insisted on this process instead of simply issuing the match tickets despite being asked to distribute them without checking names and identification.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) asked for the tickets to be handed out to voucher holders without any checks because the fact that they were in possession of a voucher was proof of purchase of a ticket.
“I will have to take a look at what happened but it is very unfortunate,” GS Hasan Tamim of BCB’s ticket and seating committee said while giving his assurance that the problem would be solved for the opener between Bangladesh and India on Saturday.
The stadium has a capacity of 25,000 but there were only 14,500 people inside during the game, with thousands more standing outside, waiting to get their tickets.
Bangladesh is hosting six matches, including two quarter-finals, as well as the opening ceremony on Thursday.
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