Police used bamboo sticks to disperse a crowd of angry cricket fans after tickets sold out for the World Cup quarter-final between India and Australia.
An Ahmedabad police spokesman described the incident as "only a mild cane charge" to "shoo away" an unruly group of people. Rajesh Patel, the honorary secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association, said there was no serious problems, and police only acted to "maintain discipline" in the queue. No arrests or injuries were reported.
Patel said the ticket box offices closed when all general admission tickets were sold for Thursday's match. More than 22,000 tickets had been sold online, and between 18,000 and 20,000 sold through local ticket windows.
The Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad has a capacity of 54,000, but that figure has been reduced for the World Cup, with sections created for official seating, plus corporate and commercial requirements. The stadium hosted Australia's group match against Zimbabwe when Ricky Ponting was fined for damaging a TV screen following his run out.
It is not the first time a late rush on tickets for the World Cup has forced police to intervene, with stronger action taken earlier at Nagpur and Bangalore.
Police wielding sticks charged hundreds of fans queuing outside the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur to buy tickets for the match between India and South Africa. Some people received minor injuries in the charge, but police refused to comment on their use of force.
That followed similar police action on 24 February in Bangalore when fans queued overnight for tickets to the match between India and England. At the time, the India captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said while it was upsetting to see cricket fans being beaten, it was wrong to blame policemen all the time.
"They do not want to cane people," Dhoni said. "It is only when the situation goes out of control and they fear a stampede that they try to control the crowd in such fashion."
Source: guardian
An Ahmedabad police spokesman described the incident as "only a mild cane charge" to "shoo away" an unruly group of people. Rajesh Patel, the honorary secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association, said there was no serious problems, and police only acted to "maintain discipline" in the queue. No arrests or injuries were reported.
Patel said the ticket box offices closed when all general admission tickets were sold for Thursday's match. More than 22,000 tickets had been sold online, and between 18,000 and 20,000 sold through local ticket windows.
The Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad has a capacity of 54,000, but that figure has been reduced for the World Cup, with sections created for official seating, plus corporate and commercial requirements. The stadium hosted Australia's group match against Zimbabwe when Ricky Ponting was fined for damaging a TV screen following his run out.
It is not the first time a late rush on tickets for the World Cup has forced police to intervene, with stronger action taken earlier at Nagpur and Bangalore.
Police wielding sticks charged hundreds of fans queuing outside the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur to buy tickets for the match between India and South Africa. Some people received minor injuries in the charge, but police refused to comment on their use of force.
That followed similar police action on 24 February in Bangalore when fans queued overnight for tickets to the match between India and England. At the time, the India captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said while it was upsetting to see cricket fans being beaten, it was wrong to blame policemen all the time.
"They do not want to cane people," Dhoni said. "It is only when the situation goes out of control and they fear a stampede that they try to control the crowd in such fashion."
Source: guardian
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