Hyderabad: Day after stampede at Gymkhana ground, HCA president Azharuddin denies negligence charges

#Hyderabad SupremeCourt-appointed supervisory committee 2 manage #HCA Friday resolved to refrain from expressing its opinion or intervene. Gives HCA full freedom.Chairman Justice(retd) NA Kakru ll review SC mandated issues & address media Monday, day after 3rd #INDvsAUST20I pic.twitter.com/8yjjaA4aCV

— Rahul V Pisharody (@rahulvpisharody) September 23, 2022

Stating that HCA’s ticketing partner Paytm has done a good job of selling tickets, Azhar said, “To be blatantly honest, what you do after getting tickets online is not my concern. If someone buys tickets online and goes outside and does something with them, it does not come under the purview of HCA. The police are there (to take action).”

Further, he added that the association is in no way connected to the sale of tickets. He was addressing the customary press meet before the match at the stadium.

“I fail to understand how can anyone sell tickets in black from our side. If someone is saying so, it is untrue,” he said. The 59-year-old went on to add that he is willing to cooperate with any law enforcement agencies. “HCA has not done anything wrong. I have all the details and can prove to any authority that we have not done anything wrong. What happened yesterday (Thursday) is not HCA’s fault,” said the former India captain, adding “I don’t want to blame anyone.”

Blame ticketing partner Paytm, says HCA secretary Vijayanand

Meanwhile, HCA secretary R Vijayanand, pressed for an answer, blamed the ticketing partner Paytm and said if a case has been registered against the HCA, it should also be filed against Paytm. “We at HCA have nothing to do with the sale of tickets. HCA has given the ticketing contract to Paytm as an outsourcing agency. We will file a case against them,” Vijayanand said, adding that the association has the complete support of the state government and is fully coordinating with the government to make the match a success.

Answering why tickets were also sold offline, Azhar said not everyone would be able to buy tickets online. Giving out a break-up of the tickets sold so far, Azhar said 11,450 tickets were sold online on September 15 via Paytm and another 4,000 tickets were sold by Paytm through corporate bookings. Another 2,100 tickets were allocated online again on Thursday and 3,000 tickets were sold offline. Besides, 6,000 tickets were kept aside for internal stakeholders, members and direct corporate sponsors. The stadium’s total seating capacity is 55,000 and according to the police, 39,000 spectators are expected to be present Sunday to watch the match.