World Cup ticket sales in turn about

For some disgruntled cricket lovers it may have come a day too late, but overnight, the World Cup organising committee turned things around to have almost a problem free day of ticket sales. Working late into the night technologies were improved and all venues reported excellent sales.

The Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, Newlands in Cape Town and Kingsmead in Durban were today completely sold out while stadium grandstand seats are only available at Centurion, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. For the rest some open stands and grass embankment packages are still available.

'Follow the Team' packages for the first round for South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia, West Indies, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and England have all been snapped up. Super Six packages will go on sale after completion of the first round.

Compared to the 98 000 tickets sold on Monday, 30 500 were sold today leaving a balance of 93,500. Total ticket takings for the two days now stands at R17 million. If these sales are anything to go by then stadiums are going to be packed to capacity during February and March next year and financially the cash strapped unions are going to be breathing a lot easier and cricket in South Africa can look to an bright future.

In a statement released by the organising committee quoted Dr Ali Bacher, executive director, as saying: "We are pleased with the way the sale of ticket packages went today but we acknowledge that the system is slow because of the heavy traffic on both the call centre and website. The system stood up well today but we are sympathetic with the many cricket fans who have struggled to access the sales channels. Sales on both the call center and website proceeded smoothly."

All sale outlets will be open to the public from 07:00 till 19:00 on Wednesday 17 July.