Dubai: Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi pleaded fans after thousands of ticketless Afghanistan fans broke the queue and attempted to get into the stadium for the Pakistan-Afghanistan ICC T20 World Cup ‘Super 12’ match on Friday night.
All tickets had been sold for the game but the chaos meant that many fans who had bought tickets were prevented from entering. Nabi asked Afghan fans to buy tickets to watch the team’s remaining matches in the tournament. “For the Afghan fans, please buy a ticket and come to the stadium. Don’t repeat this again. This is not good,” said Nabi after his team’s five-wicket loss against Pakistan.
While apologizing to the fans who were unable to enter the stadium despite having valid tickets, the ICC advised them to further contact the ticket provider. “The ICC, BCCI and ECB apologise to any fans with valid tickets who were unable to enter the stadium tonight and request they contact the ticket provider,” the ICC said in a official statement.
“More than 16,000 tickets had been issued for the game between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, thousands of ticketless fans travelled to the venue and then attempted to force entry into the stadium. Dubai Police and security staff secured the stadium to ensure the safety of everyone inside and brought in significant additional resources to disperse the crowd and calm the situation.” The statement further read.
“At approximately 7pm (8.30 pm IST), Dubai Police directed that all gates should remain closed and no further entry was permitted to maintain a safe and controlled environment inside the venue. The ICC has asked the ECB to undertake a thorough investigation into tonight’s events to learn any lessons and will work closely with authorities to ensure there is no repeat of this situation in the future.”
This is not the first time such chaotic incident happened before Afghanistan and Pakistan’s match. During the high-intense Pakistan-Afghanistan face-off in the last edition of the ODI WC, a scuffle broke out between the fans of both cricketing teams outside the Headingley Cricket Stadium in Leeds.
Pakistan continued their unbeaten run in the ICC World T20 after registering a five wickets win against Afghanistan to register their third consecutive win in the Super 12 stage of WC.
