Cricket Australia threaten Ebay ticket scalpers
Within minutes of tickets going on sale on Thursday, hundreds of Ashes tickets were available on Ebay. Most seem to be purchased by UK buyers selling on ebay.co.uk to desperate English cricket fans. Cricket Australia have pleaded with Ebay to cancel the auctions but Ebay is offering only "limited assistance" (if you want to check out all the auctions, Cricinfo provided a link to all Ebay auctions featuring Ashes tickets). In response, angry Australian cricket fans are taking matters into their own hands by sabotaging the Ebay auctions with fake bids.
That might be the only recourse possible against scalpers. Cricket Australia threaten they'll cancel scalped tickets and claim they have a system to do so although they won't reveal what it is. It sounds like a bluff to me - I can't see how they could practically police this. And if they do, I wonder what they'll do with the cancelled tickets. However, I have come up with a possible solution to weeding out UK imposters from the Australian Cricket Family. Back in Bible times when at war, the Gileadites would identify enemies by asking them to speak the word 'Shibboleth'. Whoever pronounced the word incorrectly was put to death (you'd hate to be a Gileadite with a lisp). Perhaps we need an equivalent dialect giveaway to weed out English imposters:
I must confess all this scalping burns me. I don't want to get all AM Radio but you get the impression it was the flood of opportunistic scalpers melting the Ticketmaster server as much or more than passionate Australian cricket fans. I should be realistic and accept there will always be people looking to make a quick buck when public demand is high enough. Nevertheless, my anger is directed more at Ebay scalpers than Cricket Australia for Thursday's ticket melt down.
| Posted by JC on Sat 3 Jun |  2 comments |
cricket's awsome
Posted by trublemakr on 2007-11-05 16:19:09
Posted by trublemakr on 2007-11-05 16:19:09
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