Sutherland apologises to members

James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's CEO, personally apologised to aggrieved fans hoping to acquire tickets for the Ashes series following fresh revelations that just over 23% of the total seats at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) were allocated to the members of the Australian Cricket Family.

The SCG has a capacity of 42,000 but only 9800 seats were allocated to the Family for each day's play - all of which were sold out within hours, much to the ire of the remaining members who felt short-changed. It was learnt that the SCG Trust, which pays New South Wales Cricket $12 million a year to host international matches, took the sponsors and corporate clients into consideration before deciding on the number of seats allocated to the members of the Family.

In an email to the fans, Sutherland wrote, "It has been a big week for us all, with 300,000 tickets sold in two days. I know that many of you are happy with the tickets you have got, and others are unhappy about not getting tickets you wanted and the problems you had with the system we used. I apologise for that."

The official launch of the online ticket system has witnessed complete mayhem over the last few days, with several fans facing difficulties in contacting the ticketing agencies through the phone and the internet. Their frustrations were compounded when tickets were being resold at eBay, the online auction site, at ridiculous prices by several touts seeking profits. Sutherland lashed out at the profiteers and urged the authorities at eBay to take appropriate action.

The apology came after Brett Judd, the group manager for ticketing in the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, criticised the Ashes ticketing system, implying that the process could have been handled in a more professional manner.

"If it was me, I would have balloted in some way, so it was an equal playing field, or I would have staggered it out," he told The Age. "Simply dumping it on the market probably didn't afford the best opportunity to sell in a nice, orderly manner."

Judd indicated that unlike the authorities in charge of the Games, Cricket Australia failed to foresee the need to strike an agreement with eBay in advance to prevent people from reselling tickets at prices higher than the face value.

However, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the allocation isn't as lopsided, with 42,000 out of the 95,000 tickets reserved for the Family, while the corporates, tour groups, and the other state associations getting a total of 19000 seats.