Cricket lovers seeking tickets caned in Nagpur

Enthusiastic cricket lovers who had queued up to buy tickets for the World Cup match between India and South Africa were lathicharged outside the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium here today morning.

According to reports the incident happened around 9am when the crowd tried to break the queue, resulting to a huge chaos.

Hundreds of fans had even been waiting in line since last night to buy tickets for the match scheduled for March 12.

A similar instance occurred before the India-England match when police wielding bamboo canes struggled to control huge crowds who swarmed to buy tickets, with thousands of cricket fans crushed up against the gates outside the Chinnaswamy ground.

There were reports of several people being injured, including some being taken away on stretchers.

India also attracted widespread criticism for its poor preparations and delayed construction of venues for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last October.