England’s Int'l Cricket Council Champions Trophy semifinal against Pakistan on Wednesday is "likely to be played in front of thousands of empty seats in Cardiff," according to Steve James of the LONDON TIMES. The match was sold out months ago, but it emerged that nearly 40% of the tickets "were bought by India supporters," who purchased them for both semifinals "without knowing which one their team would feature in." India will play against Bangladesh at Edgbaston on Thursday. There were "about 3,000 empty seats" at Cardiff last Tuesday when England played New Zealand, and there may be "even more" on Wednesday. Glamorgan CEO Hugh Morris said that the situation "is beyond his county's control." Morris: "The semifinal has been sold out for several months. People have been trying to get tickets but have been unable to. They were obviously sold before we knew who the semifinalists were going to be." The ticketing operation is run by the ICC, "not individual grounds, and there is an exchange process in place." But it is "not clear how many tickets will be made available by India fans, and how many will go unused" (LONDON TIMES, 6/13). The BBC reported the ICC is "urging fans" who bought tickets for Wednesday's match but are not planning to attend to "repost" them for resale. The ICC said that 3,000 tickets have already been "reposted" in this way. Morris said, "I would urge any Indian fans, while it would be great to see them in Cardiff, if they are not planning to turn up to that game to go to the ICC website and resell their tickets at face value to genuine England and Pakistan fans" (BBC, 6/13).
