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New Delhi - Furious cricket fans slammed organisers of the World Cup on Monday as the official ticketing website crashed amid a scramble for 1 000 tickets available for the final.
The website, www.Kyazoonga.com, showed an error message soon after business began at 07:30 (GMT), adding to the frustration of fans who are already angry about the small numbers of places available for the final.
Just 4 000 tickets in total are on sale for the game on April 2 at the historic but capacity-squeezed Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, with the rest being distributed through clubs and other cricket authorities.
Kyazoonga.com, a major Indian online ticketing company, told fans to be patient in a message posted on their Facebook page, blaming "unprecedented amounts of traffic from all over the world" for the problems.
"We understand your frustration and feel your pain. We are working non-stop to get you the tickets you need. Rest assured, not a single ticket that was meant for sale has been sold yet," the statement said.
Few fans were placated, with many saying the company should have been prepared for the huge demand in cricket-crazy India.
"If you couldn't handle this crazy traffic then you shouldn't have been responsible for the tickets in the first place," posted graphic designer Rahul Bhasin in a reply on Kyazoonga.com's Facebook page.
"You only have 1 000 tickets to sell online for the World Cup final - how could you not expect insane traffic?"
Others speculated that tickets had already been handed out to officials at low prices or free of charge in a repeat of the 2010 Commonwealth Games where many tickets were distributed to bureaucrats and politicians.
The venue for the title match, which has already been criticised for failing to meet fire safety regulations, has undergone major renovations which led to a reduction in seating from 38 000 to 33 000.
Tournament director Ratnakar Shetty said contractual obligations, which require 20 000 tickets to go to clubs linked to the Mumbai Cricket Association and 8,500 to the International Cricket Council, had slashed selling options.
Some fans complained that supporters were being squeezed out and questioned why Kolkata's Eden Gardens, with a 65 000-capacity, was not named as the venue for the April 2 showpiece.
"Disgusting... only 4 000 tickets... this is a big failure of management," wrote one fan on the cricinfo website.
Another added: "Are you kidding me? Why are we hosting the final on one of the smallest grounds in the country? Assuming Eden Gardens is ready by April 2, the final should be moved there."
"What's the purpose of hosting the final in India if only 4 000 out of the millions of spectators are able to watch it from the stands," said one more.
Shetty admitted his hands were tied by contractual duties, but said the fact that 20 000 tickets were going to clubs meant that the public was not missing out.
"From the outset it was always going to be near impossible to satisfy the enormous demand for tickets," said ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat.
Meanwhile, Shetty insisted that the Wankhede would be ready for the final as well as its two other matches - New Zealand v Canada on March 13 and Sri Lanka against New Zealand on March 18.
That's despite fire chiefs' unhappiness at the level of safety standards at the ground.
"When we build a stadium, we take care of each and every person who will come to the stadium," said Shetty.
"Rest assured, all permissions will be in hand and all things required from the fire department."
